A Psalm for Kings
by Starborne Wonderland
Summary: When she had first appeared, I hadn't wanted to get involved, but I had thanks to my inability to watch someone suffer and do nothing about it. And it was that involvement that permanently altered my perception of everything around me; it was that involvement that lead me to the choice of taking the burden of Kingship in order to bring peace.
1. Memoirs and Meetings

_Disclaimer: Naruto and To LOVE-Ru belong to their respective owners, yada yada. On with the story!_

First Psalm: Memoirs and Meetings

ENTRY 1 – July 15th, Earth Year 2130

Time and again, my children, and later grandchildren, have asked me to tell them the story of how and why an Earthling like me had come to become the King of Deviluke and Emperor of the entirety of the galaxy, especially since back when I was still a teenager, Earth had been one of the less technologically-developed planets when considering the whole galaxy.

Time and again, I told them the tale, sometimes just a single one of the kids, and sometimes in large groups. Of how the Queen, my wife, had fled home in order to avoid an arranged marriage, and how it happened that Earth had been the planet she landed on, specifically in my house. Of the journey of a young boy who had not wanted anything to do with running a galactic empire, but had taken the princess in and swore to care for her due to the kindness in his heart; how, because of that princess and the good and the bad she brought with her, that young boy grew into both a warrior and a man who wished for peace.

And now, as I feel that I enter the final chapter of my life, I have chosen to write the tale down, so that the generations to come will remember the sacrifices made to see that they had brighter lives than those who came before them; the sacrifices made so they could go on smiling.

My name is Naruto Raphael Uzumaki-Deviluke, born Uzumaki Naruto on Earth in the nation of Japan. I am the seventy-seventh King of Deviluke, as well as the second Galactic Emperor. This is the tale of how I went from a teen, uncaring of the existence of the painful cycle of hatred, always pulling pranks and barely passing high school to the tip-top of the social and political ladders in the entire Milky Way.

~~Psalms~~

Monday April 7th, Earth Year 2014

If the glare of the sun as my curtains were opened hadn't woken me up, then the wake-up call of my _dearest_ godfather definitely would have.

"Oi, brat, get your lazy ass up! You ain't got time to lay around doing nothin', school starts in an hour."

Now, I take offense to that lazy comment. Just because I think school sucks like any normal teenager and don't see the point in going, does not make me lazy. Sure, I end falling asleep in class half the time, but then again you could just as easily blame the teachers as you would me. Maybe if they taught something actually interesting, I wouldn't be falling asleep in their classes! So, yeah! It's the teachers' fault. There is no possible way you could possibly blame me when the teachers are the ones that suck!

"Yeah, yeah, you creepy old perv. I'll be there on time, so go back to writing your crappy erotica." I grouched at my guardian as I crawled outta bed and stumbled to my feet.

In all honesty, I probably should've expected the hit, but hey! It's like, seven in the morning! That's too damn early for anything productive, ya know? So, I will _manly_ admit that I stumbled back a bit. Finally looking up, I glared into his dark eyes, framed by the white bangs that _clearly_ proved my creepy perv of a guardian was, in my own completely true words, old as _hell_.

He met my glare head-on, and as annoyed as I am to admit to it, he did intimidate me. But just _barely_! He did, after all, have a good foot on me, what with him being freakishly tall and all – heh, I made that rhyme. Anyways! Yeah, he was freakishly tall for a Japanese dude, so he towered over just about everybody, which did add a bit to his intimidation factor. Buuuut, anyone who knows him knows he is still a creepy old perv, hence why his best friend is always beating the shit outta him – and that friendship still confused the hell outta everyone! How does the biggest pervert hater and drunk out there become best buds with the hugest perv in the world who made his living offa writing shitty erotica, ya know?

"The hell you call me, brat?! Let's get something straight! I am _not_ a perv, I'm a super pervert! And I sure as hell ain't _old_! I will have you know I am fifty years _young_ , you little annoying bastard! Any lady would love to be with the great Jiraiya, so show me some respect!"

Now, like any normal person, my reaction was the only possible one out there. I laughed in the perv's face as I turned and started to walk out of my room and down the hall to the bathroom, grabbing the clean set of ugly-as-all-hell (I mean, who the hell came up with _green plaid_ pants? Now, if they were _orange_ , we'd be talkin') school clothes on my desk as I went.

"I'll show you some respect when you earn it, ya old bat! Maybe once you quit writing that shitty smut you call literature is when you'll earn my respect."

I could feel the glare on the back of my head, and as soon as I heard the footsteps start, I sprinted it to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind me.

"You damn annoying little brat! My Icha Icha is some of the greatest literature out there! Why else do you think it sells so much!?"

Despite knowing it meant I'd have to avoid the old perv as much as possible the next few days lest I have to suffer him attempting to read the entire series to me again, as a proud prankster, one _reverently_ called 'The Prankster King from Hell', I just couldn't resist the opening that he gave me.

"Because the world is full of creepy old pervs just like you, ya know!"

~~Psalms~~

Now, one thing I'd gladly give that old perv credit for is that he knew how to live in _style_. Now, I ain't talkin' snobby, rich people style. Nah, I mean everything was nice, but not overly so.

Case in point right here: the bathroom of our place was stacked to the tens. Rather than just the traditional bath (plus stools and faucets outside said bathtub), there was a separate shower stall, plus a hot tub. And for a guy like me, who doesn't really care to sit in liters of water full of my own filth or sit on a stool butt-ass naked to rinse off _and_ _then_ get in liters of water, the shower was a lifesaver.

So, after slipping off my boxers, I stepped into the stall and turned the water to just below scalding (hey, a guy can enjoy a steamy shower, can't he?). The feel of the steaming water on my skin woke me up and helped to release some of the stress in the muscles across my body, and so I lost myself in the shower, only to be snapped out of my daze by a knock on the door.

"Oi! Get the hell outta there, Naruto! You got twenty minutes to get to school!"

Damn! Had it seriously been almost forty minutes…? Yeah… I could buy that. It wasn't the first time this'd happened, and it definitely wouldn't be the last (screw whatever the old perv had to say about it, I will gladly continue to enjoy long ass showers! This is my relaxation time, dammit!).

So, I scrambled to shampoo my hair and rapidly dried off, hastily throwing on my school clothes, leaving the white shirt untucked and unbuttoned over the orange t-shirt I had on underneath it. Flinging the door open, I sprinted right past Jiraiya and down the stairs, nearly tripping as I did.

"Damn, brat! Slow the hell down before you break something!" I heard behind me as I slipped my shoes on and burst through the front door, grabbing my watch and bag off the small stand next to the door as I went.

~~Psalms~~

Now, let me just say, sprinting headlong down the street: bad idea, especially when there are a lot of people on the streets. Then again, I had lost track of the number of times this happened; hell, it should probably be considered a daily ritual at this point.

Checking my watch showed that it was 7:49, leaving me a measly eleven minutes to make the usually-twenty-minute trip to school. As I looked forward again, however, I saw the female version of Sainin's uniform donned upon a curvy girl with a head of black hair in my path.

"Oi! Watch out!"

My shout was for nothing, however, as the girl turned towards me and froze as she stared at me heading right at her. Just before crashing into her, I saw her brown, almost a dark shade of gold, eyes narrow as who I was registered in her mind.

I lifted my head up off the ground after ending up sprawled across it, and saw the girl slowly lifting herself up. As she finally noticed me, her eyes narrowed into a glare as she shot up to her feet and leveled a pointed finger in my face.

"Uzumaki! Late again, I see! And unable to follow rules, as always!"

 _Aaaaaand_ here we go. Of course, the person I crash into just had to be the bane of my existence as a prankster. Upstanding citizen, pillar of morality, Miss "Shameless" herself. So, obviously I just couldn't help myself but do my damnedest to annoy her. Hell, the girl needed to loosen up a little and enjoy life!

I gave her my biggest and cockiest grin, the same one Jiraiya always called my 'I'm a Little Shit and I Know It' grin, and scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

"Eheh, yo, Yui-chan, how-" I was interrupted by a jab to the chest from the same finger the raven-haired girl had leveled in my face, and her glare increased in its intensity.

"Do _not_ address me as if we are friends, Uzumaki! As if I could ever be friends with such a ruffian!"

If she was hoping for my grin to fall at that, she was sorely disappointed. After all, Jiraiya was right with what he called this grin; hell, I know I'm a little shit, and I love every minute of it.

"Maa maa, Yui-chan. You're way too uptight! Wait… is it maybe… hmm. That is definitely possible! Yup, that's gotta be it! Oi, Yui-chan, I think you've got too much sexual ten-"

Of course, being a little shit sometimes _really_ screws me over. Like now, as I felt my head snap to the side and a slight burning sensation in my cheek. As I turned my head back towards the member of the Public Morals Committee, her voice invaded my ears as she shouted at me, her face red enough to match a tomato (the disgusting things!).

"Shameless ruffian! How dare you even _think_ to suggest such a thing! And in public! It's because of people like you that the moral foundations of this nation are collapsing!" With her piece said, Kotegawa Yui was off towards Sainin High, leaving me sitting there in the middle of the walkway.

Looking down at my watch, I saw that the time was now 8:53.

"Well, shit. Guess I'm late for school today."

~~Psalms~~

The teacher, some old dude (who was bald and had glasses with these kinda cool swirl designs on the lenses), looked pained and like he was about to cry as I walked into the classroom five minutes after school had officially started. As I walked towards my seat, behind a dirty-blonde-haired girl who had a bit of a Jiraiya-like problem (although she was one of the ones who enjoyed my pranks the most, and she didn't aim her perviness at me, so I was cool with her) and definitely filled out the uniform more than a lot of the other girls here, I heard him mumble something about 'nobody caring about what I have to teach' or somethin'. I dunno, and I don't really care; two reasons for that: one, it was math (and who the hell cared about math?) and two, I was likely to fall asleep within five minutes anyways.

"Late again, huh, 'Ruto? Late night rendezvous go too long, maybe?" the girl who sat in front of me grinned perversely as she faced me.

"I ain't you, Risa-chan. I don't run around perving on every good-lookin' person I see." Rather than losing her grin, though, it only seemed to grow even larger as a perverse gleam flashed through her eyes.

"Oh? Then what was that I saw with you and Kotegawa on my way here, hmm? 'Cause that certainly didn't look like nothing, 'Ruto."

My head slammed into my desk as I groaned before lifting it just enough for me to look this younger, female (and admittedly beautiful) version of Jiraiya in the eyes.

"That, Risa-chan, was Yui-chan preaching to me about needing to be an 'upstanding member of society' after I ran into her on my way here."

"'Yui- _chan'_ , huh, 'Ruto? That certainly makes it sound like something is going on."

My forehead crashed against my desk as I allowed it to drop again, barely holding back the groan that I so wanted to let out, knowing it would only egg on my rival in annoying people. And so began another regular (and boring as all hell) day at school.

~~Psalms~~

The ringing of the bell that announced break woke me up from what was a wonderful dream (buckets upon buckets of ramen being fed to me by beautiful serving girls… truly, what could that be other than heaven itself!?). The clearing of a throat, however, dragged me away from my thoughts on my dream and wanting to return to it. Lifting my head, I grinned a bit at who stood before me.

"Yo, Saru! What's up, man?" the slightly lanky, dark haired-and-eyed teen who happened to be one of my two best male friends returned my grin before placing a hand on my shoulder and pointing behind him, where one of our classmates, an orange-haired and golden-brown-eyed teen sat at his desk with his head laying against it like I had been just a minute prior.

"Eh, Rito failed this morning. Again. It's getting pretty painful to watch, so I figured I'd come see if you had any ideas planned for today."

I grinned wider as he told me about Rito, and I knew he saw the mischievous glint as it appeared in my eyes at his remark about 'ideas'.

"Hehehe… you'll just have to wait and see, Saruyama. Maybe I do and maybe I don't. If I do, why the hell would I ruin the surprise, anyways?" I chuckled as he looked a little let down at that.

"C'mon, Naruto! Don't leave me hangin' here, man! It isn't right!" My grin grew into my signature prankster one again as I stood up and began to walk towards the door. I waved a hand over my shoulder as I walked past Saruyama Kenichi and grinned as he whined about me being unfair.

"Tough luck, Saru. You can cry a river all you want, I'll just build a bridge to help you get over it." And with that, I was out the door. It was time to begin setting up for my newest idea. And boy, was it a grand one, despite being a cliché. But hey, things become cliché for a single reason: they _work_.

~~Psalms~~

I should probably make it clear before explaining just what was happening at the moment; so, as much as I wish they didn't, my _plans_ have this terrible way of not going according to plan in either the greatest or worst of ways, depending on my luck that day. 'Of mice and men' and all that crap. Sadly, today happened to fall into the worst of ways category, evidenced by the fact that rather than get the annoying and perverted principal and that perverted jackass Motemitsu on the baseball team (since I noticed they sometimes perved together, as creepy as that is; I had been relishing this one, too), the trap I had planned for over a week had instead landed on the beautiful, although immensely haughty, golden-haired Tenjōin Saki and her two followers, the cute glasses-wearing one and the tall and pretty brunette, all three a year ahead of me.

So, fearing the skill the brown-haired girl had with that boken she always carried around, I fled. Although, I had a feeling they knew it was me, and would retaliate. After all, I am well known as a prankster.

My fleeing however, led me into a particularly unwanted situation, considering I just _knew_ Rito would somehow find out and start annoying me about it, as I slipped up a bit while turning the corner. I crashed face-to-(pillow-soft)-chest (and what the hell was up with me crashing into girls today?! I'm not Rito, dammit! His stupid clumsiness had better not be contagious!) with the blue-haired and purple-eyed Sairenji Haruna, another of my friends from childhood, who I will admit to have considered pretty, and later beautiful, since I first met her.

Releasing a groan at this annoying situation, I pushed myself off of my beautiful friend and climbed to my feet. Looking down, I noticed Haruna still on the ground, rubbing her head.

"Heh, sorry 'bout that, Haruna-chan. Wasn't paying any attention to where I was going." I stated as I reached a hand out to help her up off the ground.

As she looked up, she gave me a slight smile while grabbing my hand, allowing me to pull her up. As I did that, I gave her a quick glance over, both making sure she wasn't hurt and checking if anything had changed about her lately. My lips stretched into a slight smile at seeing the two red hair clips that kept her bangs swept to the side and out of her eyes; I had gotten her those just last year when she mentioned needing new ones.

She looked the same as she always did, and while I abhorred the male uniform of Sainin, I would admit that the yellow blazer and green skirt worked well on a number of the girls here, the one in front of me especially.

"Another prank gone wrong, Uzumaki-kun? You really should stop before you get into trouble, you know?"

"Maa maa, Haruna-chan! Ya gotta have fun! 'Enjoy the little things', and all that!"

I grinned at her before walking by, giving her a pat on the back as I did.

She turned to face me as I continued walking, pouting the slightest bit as she shook her head at me, leaving just the tiniest bit of her bangs that had managed their way out of her red hair clips to fall over her eyes, which looked particularly attractive on my kind and soft-spoken friend.

"Just promise me you won't get into too much trouble, Uzumaki-kun." She stated as she smiled at me while brushing her bangs out of her face and fixing them behind her hair clip.

"If it makes you feel better, Haruna-chan. Promise of a lifetime!" I called as I turned for a moment to flash her a bright grin and a thumbs up. Disappearing around another corner and out of her sight, I ran a hand through my spiky yellow-blonde hair and heaved a sigh while beginning to mumble to myself. "Dammit, Rito. It's times like these when I wish I was willing to be more selfish. We aren't gonna be the only ones to notice Haruna-chan forever, ya know? Ya better man up before somebody else comes in and sweeps her off her feet. Especially now that I'm starting to consider it myself."

I continued walking, unaware of the boy who walked out of the bathroom after I had passed by.

~~Psalms~~

As the bell signaling the end of classes for the day rang, I watched for a second as kids began mingling before standing up myself and beginning to head out.

"Oi, 'Ruto! Don't you have practice today?" I turned around to see Risa standing before me, with a cute and short brunette whose eyes were covered by red-framed glasses standing next to her.

"Yo, Risa-chan, Mio-chan. Normally I would, yeah, but I've got some stuff I gotta take care of." The moment those words left my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say to these particular girls.

"Oh? Perhaps a rendezvous, hmm? What do you think, Mio-chan?" the perverted grins spread across the girls' faces sent me a single message: run. Of course, my fight or flight instinct was still warring inside of me, so rather than listen, I stood there.

"Maybe, Risa-chan. Perhaps it's Kotegawa-san he's going to see. Or maybe Haruna-chan. _Ooooor_ , could it be that he pranked Tenjōin-san today to keep people off of their tracks?" the short girl pushed her glasses up as she spoke, her perverted grin stretching even farther.

Shaking my head and groaning, I turned around and began to walk away.

"Honestly, I can't even bring myself to care about the perverted theories you two come up with anymore. You're as bad as Ero-Kyofu sometimes, I swear." The moment the second sentence climbed past my lips, I stopped walking and my mouth clamped shut. Oh dear Kami-sama, what've I _done_?

"Oho? You think we are as perverted as the great Jiraiya-sama himself? Well, thank you for the fantastic compliment, 'Ruto- _kuuun_. It's almost like you want me to kiss you or something!" Risa grinned at me and stepped close, entering my personal space.

"Well, it is Naruto-kun, Risa-chan. I think he's earned it." Mio stated as she moved to join Risa in my personal space. I stood there, paralyzed, my brain still processing exactly what hell I might've brought upon myself by comparing these two girls to my guardian.

"I do think you are right, Mio-chan. All right, 'Ruto. I guess you've earned it for that wonderful compliment you gave us."

The moment my brain started processing again, I felt a set of lips press against each of my cheeks. As I realized what happened, my eyes snapped to the two girls who had just exited my personal space, grins across their faces as they watched me, hoping to see my cheeks darken as had happened the last time the duo did this. Of course, that was over a year ago, and I was proud to say they would not get the pleasure.

"Hmm. I guess I really have been desensitized to you two." I deadpanned before turning around and walking out of the classroom, ignoring the mumbling of some of the guys in class calling me a lucky bastard.

"W-wha..? Wait! No! That is not fair, 'Ruto! You don't just get to walk away after that!" Risa called as she began following after me, leading me to burst down the hall trying to make sure she wouldn't see my face.

After all, I _seriously_ did not want to deal with the teasing session she would begin if she saw that my cheeks had turned a light pinkish-red the moment I turned away from her and Mio.

~~Psalms~~

I smiled as I walked into the brick building that served as the gym I usually worked out at, my eyes glimpsing the sign that read 'Maito'. I had chosen this particular one on the suggestion of Jiraiya since the dude who runs it was apparently an old friend of my dad's, despite being a decent chunk of years younger. Despite the man's eccentricities, he was a good guy and he definitely brought out results.

Looking around for the man after first walking in showed nothing, so instead I headed off to the locker room, passing by the few people at the machines or lifting weights at the moment, to get out of my school uniform and into my black tank top and orange shorts. Stuffing my uniform into a locker and closing it, I put my lock on it and then headed out only to bump into the man I had been looking for earlier.

"Yosh, Naruto-kun! Have you come to fan your flames of youth today?" I grinned as I raised my head a bit to look my trainer in the eyes.

I had long since grown used to the man always wearing green spandex, as well as his eyebrows that I'm still positive are actually caterpillars or something. Of course, the bowl cut didn't help matters either, but it ain't like that's any of my business anyways. He's a grown-ass man, he can dress however he wants.

"Yo, Gai-sensei. Yeah, I'm here to work with you today; I decided the track team can do without me for a day considering it's been a while since I came here."

The man smiled at me as he led me to the mats, where another boy, who looked and dressed just like Gai-sensei (bowl cut and caterpill– err, I mean eyebrows, included), already was, stretching as he prepared to begin working out as well. Seeing him, my lips stretched into a smile as I stepped up.

"Yo, Lee. How've you been?" I questioned as I took the mat next to his and began stretching, starting with my arms.

"Ah, hello, Naruto-kun! I am well. Gai-sensei has been helping me fan my flames of youth to be much brighter!"

Yeah, somehow I really don't see how these two _aren't_ closer related than second cousins, but hey, they swear up and down they're not, and I know that Lee and Gai-sensei aren't the types to lie.

Switching to stretch my legs a few minutes later, I smiled as Lee and I continued talking throughout the entire time I was there, Gai-sensei jumping in when he felt the need or to direct us to do something else.

~~Psalms~~

 _ **{Play Euterpe – Guilty Crown OST Piano Cover by Animenz}**_

Walking home as it started getting dark out, I smiled as I enjoyed the fresh breeze, taking my time after getting worked into the ground back at Maito. I reached into my bag, pulling out my MP3 player and headphones. Putting them on and flicking on the MP3, I let the relaxing sounds of a piano fill my ears as I looked up at the sky, enjoying seeing what stars I could while in the middle of a city.

Ever since I was little, I've wondered what it'd be like to be out in space, to see the entire world from out there. Jiraiya had appeased me back then, bringing home anything and everything he could get his hands on that had to do with what we knew of space.

The reason for that is because I had been four when my parents died, not old enough to really fully understand at first. But after a week or two, my four-year-old brain had processed enough to understand that they weren't coming back, but I was still old enough to have memories. And it nearly broke me.

Those days, Jiraiya had tried everything he could think of to help me move on and nothing would work. The moment I had mentioned my curiosity in space, the old perv had latched on and tried using that to work. He had even taken me to the observatory on the edge of the city before it closed down. Hell, I still have the telescope that he bought me back then, set up in the attic for when I just feel like watching the stars and relaxing.

Bringing my head back out of the clouds, I kept my eyes on the streets as I continued walking back home, piano still sounding in my ears. I was honestly tired, and so it seemed that today would be one of those days where I took a shower and then sat in the hot tub, Jiraiya be damned. I needed it after today.

Finally reaching my street, I turned down it only to see Jiraiya outside in the front yard talking to some gangly-looking dude with spiky grayish-silver hair, but he didn't look old enough for his hair to be that color. I slowed down and ducked behind a hedge a couple houses down, noticing they hadn't seen me yet, and took off my headphones to listen in.

"And you've been keeping an eye on it, Kakashi? You're positive?" I could barely hold my snort in when I heard the dude's name because… well, he did really look like a scarecrow. Talk about foresight on his parents' parts!

"Yeah. Minato-sensei was really close to breaking this case back then, and as you know everything just went up in smoke after he and Kushina-nee passed away. I think I'm getting close to the answers, myself."

Now _that_ had my attention. How the hell did this dude know my parents, and what the fuck was up with this case he was talking about?

"All right. Just be careful, Kakashi. I don't need the same thing that happened to Minato and Kushina happening to you, too. We're lucky Naruto made it out of that." The silver-haired dude nodded to Jiraiya before turning around and heading to the car that sat out front of our place.

What the hell was going on, and what did the old perv mean about what happened to my parents? Hadn't it been a gas leak that blew up our old house, which is why we moved here to Sainin in the first place? What the _hell_ was that about me making it out?

I waited a few minutes before coming out of hiding and heading in. As I opened the door, Jiraiya looked over from where he was watching television from what he dubbed his 'Super Pervert Throne'; in actuality, it was a damn comfy chair, one I happened to be banned from sitting in.

"Back a bit late today, aren't ya, brat? There somethin' you need to tell me?" I rolled my eyes as I walked past the entrance to the living room, moving to the stairs so that I could head to the bathroom.

"Whatever you wanna think, go ahead and think it, perv. I'll be in the bathroom. Today has been a long day." And with that, I headed up, not really caring to hear the man's response at this point. I was tired, and felt a little gross from having sweat so much when Gai decided to have me spar with Lee for the first time in a while (see, Gai also knows, like, five different forms of martial arts, and also teaches that at his gym; I've been learning karate from him for a year and a half now, and Lee has been learning that plus Jujitsu and Tae Kwon Dao, and he's crazy good at mixing the three together; hell, him and Gai call it 'Strong Fist' and, I assure you, the name fits).

Suffice to say, it went as bad as last time, and I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter. Gai says I'm coming along well and all, but Lee… he's had a fire lit under his ass ever since I met him, and I'm not sure why.

I sighed as I undressed in the bathroom, turning the shower on pretty damn hot to rinse off. I rested my head against the glass of the shower door, just letting my thoughts run wild.

Of course, my thoughts eventually strayed to what I saw outside with Jiraiya and… Kakashi, that was his name. That train of thought led nowhere, considering I didn't know a damn thing of what they were talking about except… they had mentioned my parents. But… I know the house blew up; hell, I was in the hospital for months after my miraculous survival. The investigation said that it was a gas leak, though. So what did Jiraiya mean then?

Finally giving up, realizing that this train of thought would lead me nowhere, I turned off the shower and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around my waist as I moved to the hot tub and turned it on, letting steaming hot water begin to fill the large tub.

As I waited, my thoughts trailed to other things, top among them my other best male friend aside from Saru: Yuuki Rito. I had been the first one he told about his feelings for Haruna. And right away, I knew I would let him try and win her heart. I had never been able to deny my friends, so I hid how I felt, and never told him. I never told anyone, although I get the feeling that Jiraiya knows. I think Risa might too, but she's never said anything, so who knows?

Sighing, I looked down to see that the hot tub had filled, so I dropped my towel to the floor and got in, sitting down with my back to one of the jets and putting my feet by another. I simply sat there, letting the water and jets wash away the tension in my muscles enjoying the feeling of them loosening and relaxing. I sank further in, to the point where only my nose and up weren't in the water so that I could still breathe.

I turned my head to look out the window, where I could see the stars better than earlier back when I was closer to school. I'm not sure how long I sat there, just enjoying the peace and quiet and watching the stars.

It was out of the corner of my eye that I noticed the shooting star. I turned my head to it, and watched until it disappeared from my line of sight.

"Make a wish, huh?" I mumbled as my thoughts wandered yet again back to Jiraiya and the scarecrow, Kakashi. After that, my thoughts wandered to the love triangle I found myself in with Haruna and Rito, and then Risa, followed by Yui. And then, the image of what I remembered my mother to look like entered my mind's eye: beautiful crimson-red hair that fell to her mid back, shining violet eyes, her almost-ever-present bright and kind smile; her rounded face which I had inherited, along with the shape of her eyes. And then my dad: the spiky blonde hair and cerulean eyes that I inherited from him, bangs framing his face at his jawline, a calm smile that showed no teeth. "Hmm… what do I wish for? A girlfriend just feels so cliché… so not that. What Jiraiya and Kakashi were talking about? What they meant about my parents… huh. I dunno."

I sighed as I sat up a bit and lowered my head to look at my reflection in the water. I stared into my own eyes, seeing the flickers of loneliness that had reared up whenever I thought about my mom and dad. I leaned back, letting my head rest on the top of the hot tub, and stared up at the ceiling, not really paying attention to anything, lost in my thoughts as I was.

"Kaa-chan… Tou-chan. Is there something about you that I don't know? That the old perv has been hiding from me?" I sighed again, as I felt those flickers of loneliness grow a bit brighter. And then a thought came to mind… yeah, Jiraiya is my godfather and guardian and all… but do the two of us alone really constitute a family? As much as I hated myself for it, I knew what I thought the answer was.

"I guess… we don't. The two of us… we're part of a family. One that got torn apart and won't be full again. Unless…"

I trailed off as I looked back out the window, remembering that shooting star. And my wish came to me. No matter how important what Jiraiya and Kakashi were talking about is, this felt _right_. It's the wish that I need.

"I wish to find a way to fix this injured piece of a family… to make it whole again."

A small smile wormed its way onto my face as I leaned back into the hot tub and closed my eyes. I had never really been the superstitious type (except for ghosts! Screw those things!), but this… it actually seemed like it'd work.

So, I started humming something I only barely remembered. I'm not even sure I remember it correctly, but I do remember my mom used to hum a lullaby for me when I was little and had nightmares.

I felt relaxed. More than I had in a long time. My smile grew a little bit larger as I continued humming what I remembered of the lullaby, and shortly that was all that I did. No thinking or anything, just that lullaby.

I didn't even notice as the water began bubbling more than it should. What did catch my attention, though, and dragged me away from the lullaby was a bright flash of light.

Once my vision cleared, I looked ahead to see something that was more likely to happen in one of Jiraiya's perv books than it was in real life. In front of me, in my own hot tub, sat a naked girl who had appeared quite literally outta nowhere.

I sat there, unblinking, as my mind stored what I was seeing in _that section_ of it for perusal at a later time. Long, and I mean like waist-length, bubblegum colored hair, big and round bright green eyes that shone with innocence and curiosity, _amazing_ curves that put even Yui-chan to shame (thinking about it later, I probably still would've used that pun), and… seeing that finally rebooted my brain.

"The hell?"

Is that… a tail? What the..? How the HELL does a girl have a tail of all things? Wait! Is this like in the movies, where people are experimented on!? Is this girl a government experiment!? How the hell did she escape the government then? Men in Black, where the hell are you!?

My brain stopped running rampant once I heard her talk.

"Hi! I'm Lala!" I simply sat there, staring at this girl who I'm pretty sure had less common sense than even the principal of Sainin High, and that's saying something. Finally, she tilted her head to the side cutely after a few minutes and spoke again. "Um… do you not understand me?"

"Uh…hi?" Once I spoke, 'Lala's' lips stretched out into a massive grin that practically spewed innocence, showing pure white teeth.

"Oh! You do understand me! Yatta!" with that, she raised her left hand, curling it into a fist as she punched the air, doing…well, interesting things to her body. I simply kept staring, my mind continuing to store 'data' for looking through later.

"Uhm… sorry if this offends you or anything…Lala, but is that a tail?" the girl's head turned to me again, tilting as she looked at me for a second while she processed my question. After she did, she looked behind her to where her spade-tipped tail was slowly swaying back and forth. She stared at it for but a second before bonking herself on the head as she stuck her tongue out.

"Oh! Right! Earthlings don't have tails!" Earthlings…? The hell was this girl on!? My thoughts were derailed though as Lala stood up and turned around, sticking her butt close to my face (and yes, my mind did save the 'data'). "Yup! I have a tail, but that doesn't make me change with a full moon or anything!" O…kay? Well, that reaffirmed my thoughts that this girl was definitely on some kinda drug.

"Riiight. Er, what, exactly, are you doing in my hot tub naked?" After I asked this, she brought her right hand in front of her, and I finally noticed the gray bracelet that adorned her wrist. It kinda made me think of some kind of mutated bunny, with a longer, lizard-like tail, even longer ears than usual and a heart-shaped head.

"This is my Pyon-Pyon Warp-Kun! It's a teleportation device! Bad guys were chasing me and had boarded my ship, so I used it to get away." Okay, seriously, what the actual FUCK is this girl on!? I mean, yeah, teleportation would explain how she suddenly appeared in my bath tub but that didn't answer why she showed up _naked_! And bad guys? Oh Kami-sama… this really is Men in Black or something, and she's the experiment!

"Uhm, Lala? That still doesn't explain why you showed up naked…" At this, she gave me a look like the answer should be obvious or something. I'll admit, she looked freakin' adorable.

"Well duh, silly! Pyon-Pyon Warp-Kun only teleports organic materials!" Well then. I honestly didn't even know what to say to that, so instead I reached outside of the hot tub and grabbed my towel. I wrapped it around me as I stood up, keeping the girl from seeing my little buddy. As I stepped out, I heard her rise behind me. "Where are you going?"

I turned for a second only to snap back to the direction I was facing. Really, did this girl lack all forms of common sense and shame!?

"I am grabbing you a towel. And then I will get you some clothes. I dunno about where you come from, but here, you don't really show your body to somebody unless they're family, which is when you're young, or you are married to them." I said as I grabbed another towel off of the rack and walked back to the tub, trying to avoid blatantly staring at Lala (because, really, it just felt a little wrong to stare at this girl with how innocent she is; I ain't Jiraiya!), but somewhat failing.

"Thank you, uhm… you never told me your name." At that, I stood stock-still for a second. Do I tell this girl who is obviously a government experiment or something my name? Eh… screw it. I turned around to see she had wrapped the towel around her body, and even if it strained a bit, it did cover what it needed to. So, I stepped close and stuck a hand out, because, well… today was just one of those days, so I just gave up questioning shit and would take it at face value. I was getting way too tired to deal with it all, anyways. I spoke up as she took my hand and shook it with a surprisingly strong grip.

"I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." I gave her a light smile as I spoke, and she gave me a bright grin in return.

"I'm Lala! Lala Satalin Deviluke, from the planet of Deviluke!" Cue blank staring again. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind despite all the sci-fi I had managed to get Jiraiya and sometimes Rito and Saruyama to watch with me. Hell, I was obsessed with space for most of my life, and that idea didn't even occur to me. Well… only one way to go about this, I guess.

"So, you're an alien then?" She smiled at me again as she stepped out of the tub, just barely invading my personal space. As she did, I looked into her emerald eyes again, and the thought that I could get lost in them came from seemingly nowhere.

"Well, to an Earthling like you, I am! But I could say the same of you for me!" She stated as she scooted a tiny bit closer to me, looking up into my eyes.

"Right… well, let's get you some clothes, Lala. Then we'll figure out something to do about you." The pinkette nodded at me as she followed after me when I turned to head out.

The moment that I opened the door I really found myself wishing I hadn't, as there stood my creepy old perv of a guardian. He looked lecherously behind me at the girl for a second before noticing the tail, and his gaze slowly turned back to me.

"The hell is going on, brat?" Yeah, that was Jiraiya, all right. No freaking out or anything, just blunt as all hell.

"To be honest… I'm not sure myself, perv. Today has been one of those days. I stopped questioning things a little while ago now. Anyways, this is Lala. She says she's an alien from the planet Deviluke." Jiraiya continued staring at me before returning his gaze to the pinkette behind me, before he finally sighed and shook his head.

"The shit you get into, brat. You're almost as bad as your father with that." I'm not even sure he entirely realized what he said as he headed to his room, but it stopped me mid-step. Jiraiya didn't really mention my father all that much; definitely less than he did my mother. He had raised my dad, so when he died it was like losing a son for the perv, and he was still slowly recovering, just like I was. My mother's death had hurt him too, but not as bad, so he was more willing to talk about her.

"Naruto-kun? Are you okay?" My head snapped back to my 'visitor', and with that my thoughts returned to the present.

"I'm fine, Lala. C'mon, let's get you some clothes, and then I'll show you to the guest room." With that, I started towards my room again, Lala following behind me. Stepping in, I smiled as I took in my own personal sanctuary; the walls were a dark blue-purple color, almost the same shade as the night sky. Looking back, I saw Lala smile as she looked around, seeing the posters on the walls, some were of space, some of the main characters in different fighting movies, and a few of pretty girls. It was as she looked at my desk, though, that she noticed the framed picture. The only personal picture anywhere on display in my room.

"Hey, Naruto-kun? Are those your parents?" my head strayed over to the slightly worn photo, and I stepped over and picked up the frame, running a finger across the front. In it, my parents flanked either side of me, Kaa-chan to the right and Tou-chan to the left, hands on my shoulders. I was a few inches below the bottom of my mom's chest, and just barely above my dad's hips then. My fourth birthday. If I recalled correctly, it was Jiraiya that took this picture.

"…yeah. Yeah, this is me with my parents. They uh…they died a few months after this was taken if I'm remembering right, so the old perv took me in. He raised my dad too." She looked pretty sad and about ready to apologize, so I rested a hand on her shoulder to stop her before she spoke up. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know, Lala. Can't exactly blame ya for that, ya know?"

She continued staring at me for a minute, before the brightest smile I'd seen on her yet stretched across her lips.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun. And thank you for believing me, too." I just nodded to her as I stepped over to my dresser and opened it up, pulling out one of my tank tops, this one black, and a pair of red boxers.

"Could you turn around for a sec so I can get dressed, Lala?" Rather than say something, I heard the towel rustle as she turned, and so dropped my towel to the ground as I tossed on the clothes, trying to avoid thinking about the fact there was a gorgeous girl who wasn't even dressed not five feet from me. Bad thing to be thinking about with my hormones already raging thanks to her. "All right, Lala, thanks. Now let's find you something to wear."

She turned back around and stepped up next to me as I dug through my dresser, trying to find something that would fit the busty girl. As I continued digging, Lala stood there patiently waiting until we heard a tapping against my window. Looking over, I saw Lala already moving towards my window, her bubbly smile stretching her lips yet again. As she opened it, I gawked at the little white… thing with bluish-purple, red and yellow accents that flew in.

It looked humanoid in shape, was maybe a foot and a half tall with a white jacket adorned with yellow buttons and what reminded me of the fur on fur coats, which covered a bluish-purple shirt with red tie, and bluish-purple shoes with white soles. The weirdest, and possibly coolest, part was definitely the eyes though. They were just swirls. No nose or mouth or anything else, just these big giant swirls I'm guessing are its eyes.

"Lala-sama, I've found you!" the girl grinned at the creature as she pulled it into a hug. It was after the pinkette let go that the thing noticed me. "Ah, Lala-sama, who is this foolish-looking human?" Okay, it's official. I don't like this thing. Not one bit. Nope!

"Oh! This is Naruto-kun, Peke! He helped me after Pyon-Pyon Warp-Kun teleported me here! He's really nice!" The creature continued to stare at me, and I could just feel that it was looking at me like I was stupid, so I finally shot it the worst glare I could muster. I guess my glare finally brought the thing to acknowledge me itself, as it spoke up to me.

"Hello, Naruto-san. My name is Peke. Thank you for taking care of Lala-sama." I just blankly stared at it for a minute before looking to Lala, blank look still on my face.

"Right. Lala, what exactly is this thing?" Said 'thing' looked at me, and I could just tell it was glaring, so I grinned at it. Never let it be said that being a little shit isn't fun. Well, except for when it screws you over.

"Oh! This is Peke, Naruto-kun! I made her years ago! She's my All-Purpose Costume Robot!" I stared at her, and before I even finished processing that, Lala had turned back to 'Peke'. "Peke, Dress Form, Please." I continued gawking as Lala took off her towel and dropped it on the floor, leaving her bare yet again (image safely saved in brain), and I didn't even hear what was apparently a robot respond before it starting morphing and wrapping around Lala's body, leaving her looking like she was wearing a giant version of the little bot, with her tail uncovered.

"Well, Naruto-kun? How do I look?" At first, I honestly was stumped on how to answer that. The outfit was so childish, but at the same time… it fit. Lala practically had an aura of innocence around her, and it made the childish outfit fitting for her. The thought brought a small smile to my face.

"You look good, Lala. That outfit looks really nice on you." My answer was rewarded with another big grin, before Lala seemed to refocus and brought her gaze back up to her 'Costume Robot'.

"Peke, you weren't followed, right?" The hat part of the outfit seemed to nod, and the spirals looked like they were attempting to look at Lala.

"Indeed, Lala-sama. I waited to sneak away and insure I wasn't followed." Lala nodded at that before looking back towards me, and I took advantage of the silence.

"You said you made Peke? Like, you invented her yourself?" Lala bubbly smiled again, and nodded towards me, stepping closer as she began to speak.

"That's right! I've been inventing things since I was little! I didn't have a lot of friends though, so I made Peke! I had the idea for a costume robot at the same time, so I just mixed the two." Huh…well, she's definitely smarter than she seems to be able to do something like that.

"That's pretty cool. How come you never thought to make a teleporter that teleports clothes too, though?" As I asked that, Lala stared at me blankly for a minute before doing the same head bonk with her tongue out as she had done in the hot tub.

"I guess I just never really thought about it! I already had a teleporter, and after I finished Pyon-Pyon Warp-Kun I just moved onto another invention." Yeah, I was right. This girl really is lacking in common sense. I honestly felt a bit bad for her parents.

I sat down on my bed and patted next to me, leading the bubbly pinkette to sit next to me, a bit closer than I thought she would.

"So what other kinds of stuff have you-" before I could finish my question, my window busted in. My head snapped over and standing there I saw two pretty big thugs, both light skinned, both in black suits with white dress shirts and black ties, and both wore black sunglasses. They even had on black dress shoes. Pretty damn fancy-lookin' thugs. Hell, the only differences was that one had blonde hair with a goatee, as well as a scar going down over his left eye and another two in a V-shape above his nose, and the other had black hair with no facial hair. Blonde Thug's face was also narrower than Blackie's.

"It's time for you to come with us, Lala-sama." Blackie spoke up. Except Lala wasn't paying attention to them. She was glaring up at the hat that was Peke's head.

"You stupid robot, Peke! I told you to make sure you weren't followed!" The hat actually looked like it had drooped a bit, like it was sad that its mistress was annoyed with it.

"I thought I had. My apologies, Lala-sama." I almost laughed at the look on the hat/head, but I knew it wasn't the time. Instead, I kept my eyes on the two thugs, watching for any movement.

"Don't bother trying to run away again, Lala-sama. We will capture you this time." I stared at the two thugs, feeling like I was in one big damn cliché, and I definitely had a feeling Jiraiya was on the other side of my door, listening for 'material' for his books, ready to step in if things got serious.

"No way! I'm staying here!" The thugs stepped closer, and in that moment, I reacted, knowing I'd hate myself if I stood by and did nothing. I grabbed the old baseball bat leaning against my bed (back from my old baseball days in middle school), and swung it straight into Blonde Thug's face, knocking him over and practically ensuring he was seeing little birdies flapping around like in American cartoons. Before Blackie could react, I kicked him where the sun don't shine, and he went down like a sack of rocks. I grabbed Lala's hand, dropping the broken bat, and moved to the window, jumping out and onto the roof next door.

"Sorry, Blackie, but ya heard the lady, which means I can't play fair! C'mon, Lala, we gotta go!" Looking over my shoulder, I saw the pinkette staring at me with something I didn't quite recognize in her eyes. Still, she followed along as I sprinted across the rooftops, keeping an eye open for somewhere we could get down to the ground.

"…why? Why are you helping me even with those guys after me?" Her question made me stop and look back at her. That emotion I still couldn't recognize was still present in her eyes, but confusion also lingered in her emerald irides. I kept staring into her eyes for a minute, trying to remember that emotion before I finally spoke up.

"I just can't stand by on the sidelines while someone's being forced into something against their will. You obviously don't wanna go with 'em, which makes 'em the bad guys. Besides, ain't it the hero's job to save the beautiful princess from the bad guys?" I noticed her eyes widen for a second when I mentioned princess, but I brushed it off and pushed on, seeing a ladder a few more houses down. "Now, c'mon, I see a way down over there."

~~Psalms~~

I managed to get us to an empty park so there wouldn't be any collateral damage in innocent people just in case, and we stood there, barely panting for breath from the race here.

I looked back over at Lala just as she raised her head to look at me. She smiled at me; it wasn't the bubbly one I had been seeing all night. Something about this one seemed more…personal, I guess. She stepped closer to me and wrapped around her arms around me in a tight hug, pressing her rather large chest into mine. Not really knowing how to respond to the sudden hug from someone I barely know, I lightly wrapped my arms around her waist.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun. Really. You didn't have to do… any of this, really. But you did." She stared up into my eyes with that more personal smile still stretching her lips, and I smiled down at her, before nodding.

"I told ya, didn't I? I can't just sit on the sidelines when someone's in trouble. That just ain't me! It isn't what Uzumaki Naruto does!" She kept the smile up and pulled me into another hug, and as she did it I heard Peke mumble something to the pinkette.

"I see what you're doing, Lala-sama. It isn't right." The alien girl leveled a glare up the hat while I looked down at her questioningly. Before I could say anything, though, I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. Now, while those two dudes before were Cliché Movie Thugs Numbers One and Two, this guy was Cliché Middle Ages Evil Knight Number One.

Seriously, he was dressed in really thick-looking grayish armor that looked kinda demonic (hell, the chest plate almost looked like it was in the shape of a mouth and eyes), and he had these big spiked pauldrons with red gems in the middle of 'em. Funniest part though: the dude was actually wearing a _cape_. Just a big, dark cape that covered most of his arms while they were at his sides. The dude had gray hair and dark blue eyes, and I would say he almost looked good, except he smelled like dog crap and was all scuffed up.

After looking at each other for a minute, the man finally pointed at Lala.

"It's time for you to come with me, Lala-sama. This has gone on long enough." Rather than respond with words, Lala stuck her tongue out at Sir Knight and ducked behind me. "I see. Do you know what I had to go through to find you? I got lost in this city multiple times, I was chased by dogs who…well it wasn't good, what they did. And finally, I was attacked by this man in a blue suit who kept shouting at me. This is why I don't like underdeveloped planets." I had almost laughed at what happened to the dude, but the moment he started hating on Earth, I leveled him with a dark glare.

"You wanna keep hating on my planet, asshat? That ain't really a nice thing to do, ya know?" The man stared at me for a minute, assessing me, before he nodded.

"I see, you must be this 'Naruto' that took down Maul and Smutts." Seriously, what is up with the names these aliens come up with? It's pretty hard to keep myself from laughing when I hear such ridiculous names, after all.

"If Maul and Smutts were the two cliché movie thugs that busted up my window, then yeah, that was me. You might wanna look into getting better thugs, asshole. I'm also pretty sure you owe me a window now. I mean, didn't your mother teach you it isn't nice to go breaking people's things?"

Sir Knight leveled a glare at me before releasing a heavy breath through his nose.

"I would ask that you move out of the way, Earthling. You don't know what you're dealing with. I'd rather not have to kill anyone."

Okay, really? Why is it that of all the aliens I've met tonight, only one has been nice? And it happened to be the cute girl? Fucking cliché! I groaned as I pushed Lala further behind me. Damn my good heart.

"Yeah, can't really do that, Sir Knight. I ain't the type to. 'Sides, isn't it the hero's job to protect the girl from the douche– I mean evil guy? Wait, no douche works. Pretty sure those two are interchangeable now that I think about it." If anything, he just seemed more annoyed at his new nickname and the insults I threw his way. Curse my need to be a little shit, dammit!

"I see. Lala-sama, please come. As I said, I don't want to have to kill anyone."

Lala looked over my shoulder and leveled a cute glare at the guy.

"No way! I'm staying here. I'm tired of all those marriage meetings! You can just go and tell Daddy to leave me alone!" Wait, what? Oh, no… have I seriously walked right into one of Jiraiya's _Icha Icha_ books?

"I can't do that, Lala-sama. You are the heiress to the throne of the Devilukean Empire. You must marry someone fit to be king of the Milky Way. Your father commands it." Well, that answers that question. I did walk right into one of Jiraiya's books. Fan- _fucking_ -tastic.

"I've already chosen! I'm gonna marry Naruto-kun and stay here on Earth!" My eyes bugged out as I turned to face the pink-haired alien, processing just what she said.

"The hell!? What're you talkin' about!? I never agreed to marry anybody!" A sound behind me forced me to turn around, seeing Sir Knight remove a bladeless hilt from his side.

"I see. However, I'm afraid I can't just leave the First Princess of the Milky Way on an underdeveloped planet with an unknown. Gid-sama would have my head for that. If this truly is your choice, Lala-sama, then I suppose I must test this Naruto. Naruto-san, my name is Zastin. Although it won't matter to you, since I refuse to allow someone unworthy to inherit the throne, so you will be dying tonight." My eyes widened as a green energy blade emerged from the hilt, probably about three feet long.

"Shit. Shit on a stick. Lala, tell him you made that up, dammit!" I shouted as I ducked under a swing and sprinted away from the newly-dubbed Psycho with a Fucking Energy Sword (I refuse to call this asshat by his name, dammit!).

"But… it's true Naruto-kun. In just a day, you've been far nicer to me than any of my suitors. All they see is the crown… the throne of the Empire. You didn't… you saw me for me." I ducked under another swing as I gawked at the girl.

"Because I didn't know you were a princess, dammit! Now tell him, please! I really do NOT wanna lose my head anytime soon!" I kept sprinting, dodging Sir Psycho as best I could. Finally, I felt the sword brush over my head, and, looking over my shoulder, I saw some of my hair fall to the ground. I stopped in my tracks, staring straight at my blonde hair on the ground.

Sir Psycho took another swing at me, but rather then run, I ducked under this one and stepped into his guard, delivering a punch straight to his face. And then stared. Because it didn't do a damn thing to him. Sir Psycho stared back at me. And then he spoke.

"You'll have to do far better than that to hurt me, Earthling. I am far stronger than Maul and Smutts. I am known as Deviluke's greatest swordsman for a reason." And cue rapid paling of my face. To my fallback I go! I have to bullshit so well to make sure I don't die tonight…

"O-Oi! I don't really get all this succession crap since stuff like that hasn't happened on Earth, at least that I'm aware of, in a long while. I do get marriage and shit, though! I don't remember much about my parents, they died when I was four, but what I do remember is that they didn't just love me with all their hearts! They loved each other. Ain't that what marriage is supposed to be, ya jackass? Hell, it's fucked up your king is tryin' to make Lala-chan marry some random dude just so he can have an heir. How the hell is a marriage supposed to work when the people involved don't even care about each other!?

"'Cause, from what Lala-chan said, that's how it is with all her suitors. All they see her as is a ticket to the crown and throne instead of the beautiful girl that she is! Everyone deserves to marry for love, it don't matter if they're a princess or a cripple! Tryin' to force Lala to marry someone she hates ain't gonna solve a damn thing for anyone!"

I finally stopped, catching my breath, and looked up to see both Lala and Sir Psycho staring at me. Lala had her hands up to her mouth, tears in her eyes as she stared at me, that emotion that I'm finally beginning to recognize even stronger in them. Sir Psycho had tears in his eyes too, and he finally lowered his sword, allowing the energy blade to dissipate back into the hilt.

"I… I see. You are correct. I simply couldn't understand Lala-sama's feelings. No, it isn't that… it is that I refused to try and understand her feelings. However, you, the one who can understand Lala-sama's feelings… yes, forgive me, Naruto-dono. I see now that you are the one worthy of marrying Lala-sama." I stared, baffled at how he had taken my words the entirely wrong way.

"W-what the hell are you talking about, you psycho!? I don't love Lala-chan! Hell, I don't even _know_ her! So what crap are you going on about now?"

Before I could go on yelling, though, I felt arms wrap around me from behind and a large chest press against my back. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Lala look up into my eyes as she gave me that personal smile again.

"You might not yet… but you're already calling me 'chan'. Doesn't that itself mean that there's a chance?" I kept looking into her emerald eyes, baffled as I hadn't even realized I began calling her that… but it didn't mean anything.

"I call all my female friends 'chan'. I ain't the type for formalities. So, me calling you that doesn't mean anything, Lala." I had noticeably forced myself to drop the 'chan', and I'm sure she realized it too.

"But… but I love you. Doesn't that mean you can give me a chance?" I watched for a moment as her eyes teared up before I had to look away. I ended up looking into Sir Psycho's eyes, and for at least a minute, I just stared at him, and him at me. Finally, I heaved a sigh and looked down at the girl close to crying into my back.

"You… you don't love me, Lala. You love the idea of me; you love what you think I am. You don't know me enough to love me, just like I don't know you enough to love you." I pressed a hand against her cheek and lifted her face to look her in the eyes, as I continued. "Honestly, I don't wanna deal with any of this Empire and princess and inheritance crap, but I never go back on my word." Her eyes started to brighten, and I wasn't sure how she'd feel about what I had to say next.

Glancing over my shoulder for a second, I also saw Sir Psycho keeping his eyes on me, listening intently to what I would say. I also just barely noticed what looked like a recording device in his hand. Heh, guess he wants the king to hear what his daughter's new choice has to say, huh? All right, then. Here you go, asshat.

Looking back down into emerald eyes, I kept talking.

"I do believe everyone, no matter their position, deserves to marry for love and not be forced into it. Even an heiress like you, and that's why your father is a petty jackass for trying to force you into it. But, I can't say yes to marrying you, Lala. Like I said, we don't know each other. But… if you really wanna, you can stay here on Earth. I don't wanna deal with all this crap, but if it'll keep your dad off your ass about all this marriage shit, you can stay here until you find the guy you wanna marry. And I'll kick the crap outta anyone who tries to take you against your will until the day you make that choice." The pinkette just stared into my eyes as tears streamed down her face.

I gave her a light smile and allowed her tightening her arms around me in a vice grip of a hug. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Zastin nod to me with a smile on his face as he put the recorder away. Looking back down at Lala again, I wrapped my arms around her waist and let her cry into my chest. Well, ain't no point in not going all in now. So, I leaned down to whisper into her ear.

"That's a promise of a lifetime, Lala-chan. And like I told you, Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word."

~~Psalms~~

I nearly face-palmed as Lala, Zastin and I walked into the living room (which was painted a calming light blue, just about the same shade as the sky on a clear day). Really, I couldn't even say I was surprised at what I was seeing. It's just that much of a Jiraiya move, that I'd honestly be shocked he hadn't done it.

Yeah, there sat Zastin's two underlings, who he called Maul and Smutts (and, going out on a limb here, I'm guessing Scarface over there is Maul; just feels overly obvious and thus must be right), each reading the first book of Jiraiya's _Icha Icha_ series. Jiraiya himself was bragging over his 'pieces of literary art' as he called them.

"Really, perv? Even trying to get alien henchmen to read your crappy erotica? Not that I can say I'm surprised, but still…" Jiraiya looked to me with a glare, before that turned into his pervy smirk (about ten times worse than Risa's pervy grin) when he saw Lala-chan holding onto my arm.

"And what about you, brat? You seem awfully comfortable with an alien princess hanging off your arm." So that's how he wanted it, huh? All right, Jiraiya, you're on.

"Hmm? Sorry, but did you say something? I couldn't hear you over the unique sound that is creepy old perv." He glared again as I shot him my own smirk. Finally, I decided introductions were needed. "Anyways, Sir Psycho over there is Zastin, Lala-chan's bodyguard and supposedly the greatest swordsman on their planet. The two you've inducted into your cult are Scarface and Blackie, otherwise known as Maul and Smutts, and are Zastin's underlings." I ignored the glares aimed at me from the three bodyguards with a shit-eating grin on my face as I moved to sit down on my orange (of which I redid the upholstery personally) couch, Lala-chan following behind me.

"And, as you seem to already know, this is Lala-chan, the First Princess of the planet of Deviluke and heiress to the galactic throne. She'll be staying with us until her asshole of a father gets off her back about marriage." I pointedly ignored Lala-chan leaning against me as I sat on my couch, which Jiraiya seemed to take pleasure in noticing if his expression meant anything, which it usually did.

"So, you're engaged to an alien princess, brat? And heiress of the entire galaxy, no less? Honestly, the shit you get in to!" I groaned as I knew he did that just to give Lala-chan even more hope about her getting me to agree to marry her. Leaning back against my nice and comfy couch, I looked around the room. Zastin was still standing by the door, and looked pretty damn outta place that it was amusing. Maul and Smutts went on reading the smut (and I just noticed that fantastic pun, to be saved and used at a later date in case 'Smut-tsy' ever annoys me) and Jiraiya, leaning back into his own 'throne', smirked first at me and then at his own new lackeys inducted into his cult.

"Not engaged, stupid perv. I made a promise that I'd keep her dad and asshats who try to take her against her will away from her until she decides who she wants to marry." Noticing Lala-chan next to me about to say something, I spoke again before she asked me to marry her _again_. "The answer is still no, Lala-chan. I'm not marrying you." Honestly, you would think she'd get the idea after the first five times, but nope. This would've been the twelfth time she's asked in under an hour.

I suppose I will give her points for persistence, though.

"You may say no now, Naruto-kun. But I'll get you to fall in love me like I've already started falling in love with you." She smiled up at me brightly from her spot leaning against my shoulder. Looking at her, a thought popped into my head. I'm really usually not all that superstitious (fuck ghosts, though. I ain't going anywhere near something I can't even touch), but maybe…just maybe this is the answer to my wish on that shooting star. Maybe this is the way to repair my damaged family.

The dinging of the clock hanging on the wall above Maul and Smutts announced that it was midnight. Monday was over.

I leaned back into my couch again as I sighed. Lala-chan leaned back with me, still resting on my shoulder and only five words came to mind.

"Really one of those days."


	2. It's Just a Wee Bit Complicated

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or To LOVE-Ru, yada yada. Or Lord of the Rings. Or Dark Souls. You get the point by now._

Second Psalm: It's Just a Wee Bit Complicated

Entry Two – July 16th, Earth Date 2130

Those early times with Lala were, and quite possibly still are, the most confusing I'd ever known. Everything changed completely so fast…

I suddenly lived with a beautiful girl my own age, I had to keep secret the fact that she was an alien, and I was damn determined to keep my friends from Sainin meeting her. They'd be safer that way.

I had to protect her until she picked someone she wanted to marry. It couldn't be me. It just couldn't. Not when I didn't have feelings for her…not when I was in love with the same girl as my best friend. Of course, I should've known my plans would've gone to shit. They always do.

~~PSALMS~~

Tuesday April 8th, Earth Date 2014

I really enjoy my sleep. Like really, really fucking enjoy it. So, when I wake up in the middle of the night for whatever reason, it really pisses me off. Especially when I'm having a great dream. Especially when that dream involves either ramen or beautiful girls. _Especially_ when it involves both.

So, waking up at three in the goddamn morning makes me a very unhappy camper. Especially when I try to get up and can't. Looking down to see what the unexpected weight on my chest was, I came face-to-hair with long pink locks.

"…the fuck?"

Okay. Lala's in my bed. And I'm pretty sure she's naked. Craning my head around my room, I confirm my thoughts as I see that damned robot asleep on my desk. Well, that explains the feeling of two small points poking me.

Five minutes later, I still can't get up. Lala refuses to wake up, and she won't let go of me. This is not good for me. Or her. Or my bladder. So, I decide to try something, even knowing it will piss her off if she wakes up while I'm doing it; get off my back, I really need to pee.

I roll over so she's clinging onto my back before getting up, leaving her wrapped around me as I walk to the bathroom.

Thankfully, she hasn't woken up yet, so all I need to do is wash my hands and head back to bed; although I will need to talk to Lala about sleeping in my room in the morning.

I rub my face as I look into the mirror, my resemblance to my father hitting me all over again; if my hair were longer, I'd probably look like his little brother instead of his son.

With a sigh, I wash and dry my hands before heading back to my room.

Laying down and seeing Lala's face as she sleeps on me reminds me of the crap I've now found myself in. I groan as I look up at the ceiling, trying to figure out a way to deal with this shit.

"Dad…tell me what to do here. Please. I don't know how to deal with this stuff." I felt that loneliness spark up inside me again, practically sprinting to the forefront of my mind and emotions.

I should've known nothing would happen, though. He's dead. So is Mom. They can't do anything to help me now, and I'd take advice from Rito of all people before going to Jiraiya.

I ran my hand through my hair as my thoughts ran this way and that, from my parents to Lala to Jiraiya to Risa and Mio to Saru to Yui…and finally to Rito and Haruna.

"Heh. As long as Lala's here, that boat has sailed. Guess I'm not going for it after all, Rito. Haruna's all yours."

Again, I curse my selflessness when it comes to my friends. First Rito and my refusing to go over him for Haruna, and now Lala and my refusing to hurt her feelings by chasing after another girl when she has feelings for me.

Today's already off to a bad start, I think. Looking over at my alarm clock, I groan when I see that it's only half past three.

"It is gonna be a complicated day, huh? I'm over this shit."

~~PSALMS~~

"Brat, get… up? The hell is going on in here, Naruto?"

I look over to see Jiraiya standing in the doorway, completely baffled before his perverted smirk stretches across his face. It is way too early to deal with his crap right now.

"I will tell you once I figure that out myself. Now get the hell out, perv."

I thank Kami-sama that the old perv actually listened to me for once and walked out the door, but I have no doubt that he's just going to write this down while he thinks of a way to add it into his next _Icha Icha_ novel.

Looking down at the alien princess still asleep on top of me, I start shaking her to wake her up.

"Oi, Lala! Time to wake up. I gotta get to school."

It takes a few minutes, but the pink-haired girl slowly starts to open her eyes as her brain turns back on for the day.

"Mou, Naruto-kun. Why'd you have to wake me up?"

I gotta say, how she looks right now is downright adorable; hair all mussed up from bedhead, her eyes squinting at me as she finishes waking up.

"Because, Lala-chan, I've got school. And you and I need to talk."

The girl gives me a confused look, as if she has no idea what we could possibly need to talk about. I shake my head at the naivety she seems to have; it should be obvious enough.

"You can't sleep in my room with me, Lala; especially naked."

"What? Why not?" Her eyes widen and it looks as if tears are starting to build up in them; fucking fantastic. Now I'm gonna hate myself for hurting her. This is better than getting her hopes up, though. It won't hurt her as much.

"Because, we aren't engaged or married, Lala. I'm not gonna go getting your hopes up when I don't have any feelings for you other than friendship."

The first tears start to leak out, and I'm about ready to punch myself for being the one to make her cry; it fucking sucks to have to hurt my friends.

"Do…do you not want me here, Naruto-kun?"

"It isn't that, Lala-chan. One, I swore to take care of you, and Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word. Two, you're my friend, and you're important to me; but I won't get your hopes up by letting this happen when I don't have feelings for you."

The girl lowers her head to stare at the carpeted floor of my room as she silently cries. I sit in silence next to her until, finally, she looks up, determination in her eyes.

"So, if you did get feelings for me, then you'd be fine with this?"

I look into her emerald irides, debating how to answer her; I'm honestly not sure what my answer would be. The teenaged male in me screams yes to the high heavens, whether I have feelings for her or not. The boy who cares for his friends more than anything, though, says to be honest and find another way to make her happy.

"I dunno, Lala. Maybe? I can't really say. You just can't do that shit, alright? I'm not fine with it at all, and it needs to stop."

Lala finally seems to understand, as she nods before getting up, grabbing Peke and walking out of my room, not saying another word to me.

I groan and throw myself back onto my bed, knowing I had screwed up with Lala; how the hell do you deal with this situation?

~~PSALMS~~

"Oi! You ain't waiting for her, brat?" I glare at Jiraiya as I slip my shoes on and grab my bag and watch before opening the door.

"She can't exactly go to a school she's not enrolled in, perv. Just keep an eye on her till I get back." I say before closing the door, hearing him yell as I leave.

I have no clue how to deal with this. Pranks, I can do. Asshats and douches, I can do. My own feelings for girls, I can do. A girl who has feelings for me and just so happens to be a princess asking me to marry her? That, I can't do. Not at all.

"The hell have you gotten yourself into this time, Naruto?" I mumble to myself as I walk down the street, getting looks from some of the people who recognize me because I'm heading to school _early_. Oh no, the world must be ending. Screw this crap. Screw going to school.

"To the arcade it is." I just wish I had noticed the girl behind me, her almost-gold eyes burning into my back.

"And what, exactly, do you think you're doing, Uzumaki?"

Turning around, I groan. Two days in a row? Really, Kami-sama? You say you love everyone equally, but I'm on to you. You hate me.

"Buzz off, Yui. I'm really not in the mood today." Kotegawa Yui glares at me as she jabs a finger into my chest, already prepared to give another one of her morality speeches.

"You can't just skip school because you feel like it, Uzumaki! Do you want to end up a deadbeat? Do you not want a good job?"

Fuck you too, Kami-sama. Really.

"Kotegawa. Buzz. Off." The glare in my eyes must really be bad, because her eyes widened in fear and one of her feet moved back. She looked ready to run.

"U-Uzumaki?"

"Look. I'm not in the mood to deal with this crap today. If you wanna tell a teacher or the principal or whatever, go right ahead. I don't give a shit."

And with that, I walked off to play my favorite game in the arcade. A good fighting game always helps to blow off some steam.

Had I noticed the worry in Yui's eyes as I walked away, maybe I would've felt bad and apologized. As it was, I didn't.

~~PSALMS~~

Looking at my watch, I sighed as I realized it was already noon. That meant I'd been in the arcade, playing the same game for four hours. And I was rather out of money now. Which means I now have to go home to get lunch. Great.

As I walk out of the arcade, though, I stop in my tracks as I see Zastin glaring at me.

"You hurt Lala-sama, Naruto-dono." I groan as I keep walking, the knight following behind me.

"I'm well aware, Sir Psycho. But when I wake up with her in my bed, what do you expect? We aren't together. I have no feelings for her. Letting it go on would just hurt her more. Would you rather I do that over what I did?"

The swordsman just goes on glaring at me as we walk. We get a lot of odd looks; after all, a kid obviously cutting class with some creep in what looks like cosplay? It's bound to get looks around here.

Finally, after walking in silence for five minutes, he speaks up.

"You couldn't find a different way? Not one?"

"Look, I reacted to what happened in the first way that came to mind. I know I was harsher than I should've been, and should apologize. But I'm not ready to talk to her yet. Sorry."

Zastin stops. I don't really care. I just keep walking. Screw this crap.

~~PSALMS~~

"The hell you doing home, brat?"

Huh. Whaddya know? The perv actually cares for once about me skipping school.

"Getting food. And money. Then I'm going to the arcade."

As I go to walk by, a hand grabs the back of my shirt, yanking me into the living room and throwing me into my sofa. Right across from Jiraiya and a busty pigtailed-blonde with brown eyes who looks way younger than she really is. Well, she's obviously got better genes than the old perv does.

"You stupid, brat? You wanna fail?" Senju Tsunade glares at me as she speaks. She took on the role of what a woman is supposed to be like for me after my parents died. Although, she's not really the best example, being a drunk and quite possibly the worst gambler in history.

"Yo, Baachan. What brings you 'round here?"

Really, I should've expected the paperweight. It happened enough by now that I should know it's coming at this point. I rub my forehead as she glares at me, her eyes burning holes into me.

"I'm here because the perv got a call saying you weren't at school. We were just about to leave to go looking for you, you stupid brat!"

Noticing pink off to the side, I look over to see Lala standing in the doorway, staring at me. I ignore Tsunade as she keeps speaking.

I debate about it for a minute before getting up and grabbing Lala's hand as she looks at me confusedly.

"C'mon. We need to talk." With that, I'm out the door, the pink-haired alien following after me as I walk towards the artificial river a few streets down.

~~PSALMS~~

"Look. I'm sorry about last night…this morning, whatever. But you can't do that stuff while you're staying with me, Lala."

I finally speak after we sat by the river for half an hour in silence. I look over to find Lala looking back at me, sadness etched into her features.

"Why not?"

I release a sigh as I look into the water. How similar I look to Dad hits me again as I see my distorted reflection. What would he do in this situation? I really can't say.

"Because, I'm not going to lead you on or get your hopes up when I don't have feelings for you. You're my friend, and I don't want to hurt you, but either way this will, so I'm taking the route that hurts you less. And me, actually."

"But if you do get feelings for me, would you let me?"

This question again. Great. How to answer it now? I run a hand through my hair as I debate how to go about this. I hate hurting my friends, but I don't wanna give her false hope either.

"Maybe. I dunno, Lala. For now…can you just not do stuff like that? If things change in the future, they do. If they don't, they don't. But right now, I don't have feelings for you. All I see you as is a friend. I'm not gonna lead you on and play with your emotions. I refuse to be trash like that."

The sadness finally seems to leave her, replaced by sheer determination.

"Then this just gives me another reason to win you over! I'll make you fall in love with me! I'll make it so you can't so no!" She shouts as she stands up, throwing her fist up into the air with a grin on her face.

I shake my head at her, not even noticing the smile that my lips curved into.

"If you say so, Lala."

~~PSALMS~~

When we get back, Jiraiya and Tsunade are waiting, both with glares on their faces.

"How much have you told her, perv?" Jiraiya looks at me sheepishly, and his answer is pretty damn obvious. "Right. Anyways, some stuff happened between us this morning that really bothered me, and I got even more pissed at myself for hurting a friend. So I skipped to blow off steam so I didn't get into another fight at school. There. Happy?" With that, I walked right past the living room to head up to my room, Lala following behind me.

"Hey, Naruto-kun?" I look over my shoulder to see Lala with a curious look on her face. "When I was in your room, I saw some games. Could you teach me how to play?"

A grin stretches across my lips at her request. Now, that is something I could do all day.

"Sure thing. Which one do you wanna play, Lala-chan?"

"Umm…how about that one with the guy with the long hair and the short man with the axe?"

"Lord of the Rings? Oh, you're on, Lala."

~~PSALMS~~

"..how? How the hell are you already this good at it!?"

Suffice to say, the pink-haired princess had easily beaten my ass after only playing for half an hour. She looked at me as she laughed, joy lighting up her features; she looked even more beautiful than usual.

"I dunno. It's just an easy game, I guess. Do you have any harder ones, Naruto-kun?"

A mischievous grin stretched across my lips at the question. There was no way she could be this good at the game I had in mind.

"Hmm. Ya know, I think I just might. You interested?"

She nodded at me, a grin on her face as I got up to switch the games. You won't be that happy soon.

I realized I had chuckled kinda creepily when I turned around to see Lala staring at me with her head tilted.

"You okay, Naruto-kun?"

"Just fine, Lala-chan. I'm doing just fine."

I sat there two hours later, baffled. There was just no way. Not one. How had she not died even once yet?

"You were right! This one is harder! But it's really fun, too, Naruto-kun!"

She's playing the game made to piss you off and kill you…the game that makes you rage more than any other…and she hasn't died once.

HOW THE HELL DO YOU NOT DIE EVEN ONCE WHEN PLAYING DARK SOULS?

Whatever. Screw it, I give up.

"Yo, Lala-chan. You wanna go get some food at a restaurant or something?"

Her head snaps over to me, as she smiles at me before nodding. And then it happened. That noise that pissed me off so much. I didn't realize it could actually cause joy. I looked to the screen to see two words in blood red coloring on the screen: YOU DIED.

"Aww. Boo! Oh well. I can try again later. Let's go, Naruto-kun!" I simply stare at Lala as she gets up, ready to leave. She isn't…she's not mad? She died in Dark Souls… and she's not mad? Is that even possible?

I shake those thoughts off as I stand up, nodding at Lala.

"Yeah. But first, you should probably change."

She looks over to me, confusion in her features as she ponders what I said. Then she tilts her head cutely to the side.

"Why?"

Shit. How to put this without hurting her feelings. Hmm…

"Well, those clothes aren't exactly the norm here on Earth, Lala-chan. And, no offense, but we really don't need you sticking out."

She nods at my words, before thinking. Finally she looks up at the hat on her head and speaking up.

"Peke, can you copy the clothes in that picture?"

As she points out the only personal picture in my room, my head snaps over.

Mom's dress?

"Indeed I can, Lala-sama. One moment, please."

I look back over to Lala, watching as the childish outfit transforms into the green dress my mother wore on my fourth birthday; the last one she and Dad were alive for.

She grins as she looks over at me. Her lips move, but I don't hear anything. I can't help it…seeing that dress again in person instead of a photo brings a flash of red and orange to memory for but a second before it disappears.

"…ruto-kun? Naruto-kun?"

I shake my head before looking Lala in the eyes.

"Huh? Sorry, Lala-chan. Got lost in thought."

She grins at me before twirling on the spot, showing herself off in the same dress as what my mother wore.

"Well? What do you think, Naruto-kun?"

I look Lala up and down, taking in how she looks in what was my mother's favorite dress. Finally looking back up to her, I force a smile, not quite sure how I feel.

"You look beautiful, Lala-chan. It matches your eyes." And so it did…but I'm not sure how I feel about seeing somebody other than Mom in that dress.

"Thanks! Are we ready to go now?"

~~PSALMS~~

Saturday April 12th, Earth Date 2014

"…to…?...ruto-kun? Naruto-kun, it's time to wake up."

I groan as I roll over, rubbing my eyes and looking up to see Lala standing there, dressed in a pair of white shorts and a blue tank top. Good thing we went to a clothing store the other night after getting food so Lala had more outfits to choose from. She already attracted enough attention as it was, we didn't need to add to that by having her go around in the Peke outfit.

"Lala? Where's the perv at?" She tilted her head at me for a second, looking like she was thinking before suddenly her eyes lit up.

"Oh! Right! He said he had something to take care of, and that it was a surprise for you! So, he asked me to wake you up for school today!"

Oh no. A surprise from Jiraiya always means something bad. He's going to really screw me over, isn't he? That damn perverted bastard!

"Right. Okay. Well, I'm gonna take a shower and head to school. I'll see you later, Lala-chan."

"'Kay! I'll make breakfast while you're in the shower."

With that, she was out the door and headed downstairs, happily humming as she went. I shook my head and chuckled as I got out of bed and grabbed my school uniform.

"How in the world you can be that cheerful this early, I will never understand, Lala-chan."

~~PSALMS~~

I groaned as my stomach churned when I walked into my class. Note to self: never let Lala in the kitchen again. Genius inventor she may be, chef she is not. Damn my need to make my friends happy. Damn it to hell. And damn her puppy-dog eyes.

"You okay there, 'Ruto? You look a little sick."

I sigh as I drop into my seat, really not ready for this, especially after Lala's cooking.

"Yo, Risa-chan. I ate something that did not agree with me. At all."

Risa grinned at me as she leaned over the back of her seat, resting her chin against the arm she just propped up on my desk.

"Oh? Could this something that did not agree with you have to do with a beautiful girl who was trying to win your heart, 'Ruto? Did she perhaps wear a naked apron, and you ate fast so you could ravage her, thus eating too fast?"

For once, her perverted theory was actually part right. Points for her. But, I can't let her know that.

"Must you really make everything into something perverted, Risa-chan? Really?"

She just continued grinning up until the teacher walked in and we had to stand to bow.

"Now then, before we start, I have an announcement to make. There will be a transfer student joining our class starting today. Everyone, please do your best to make them feel welcome. Come in, please?"

As everyone looked to the door, I heard whispers hoping for a cute girl from the guys and a hot dude from the girls, making me chuckle. The guys in here already had enough eye candy that they didn't even try to catch, it would be pointless to add another. Then again, the same could be said for the-

"Hi!" My train of thought stopped the moment I heard the familiar voice, and my head snapped up to look at the front of the room. "I'm Lala Sata- Naruto-kun! You're in this class, too?"

Green eyes stared into my blue ones as I looked up at Lala. In the Sainin uniform for girls (plus a small white hairclip with two swirls on it: Peke). In my class. A transfer student. The students in my class whispered to each other about how I knew this hot new girl while Risa whipped around in her seat with the biggest grin I've ever seen on her face.

I knew it. I just knew it. Fuck you and your so-called 'surprises', Jiraiya. My head slammed into my desk as I groaned.

~~PSALMS~~

Normally, the lunch bell ringing was a godsend. Today, however, was different.

"Naruto-kun! Here! I made lunch for you!" Oh no. Dear Kami-sama, please. I'll go to church again, I'll behave. I'll stop pranking. Just…no more food from Lala. Please?

My prayers went unanswered as Lala stepped up to my desk, holding a wrapped bento in her hands. She set it down on my desk, along with one for her, as she pulled a chair up to sit next to me.

Risa turned around, that grin still on her face.

"So, 'Ruto? You gonna introduce us or what?"

I glare at her, just making her grin get bigger, if that's even possible. The answer wasn't up to me, though, as Lala held a hand out to the dirty blonde-haired girl.

"Hi! I'm Lala, Naruto's fi-" my hand clamped over her mouth before she could finish her introduction. I heaved a sigh of relief before removing my hand, thinking she got the idea. "-ancé."

Whelp. Shit in a basket. I thought we talked about this, Lala. I really did.

Risa's eyes widened as she looked over at me just in time to see my head slam into my desk.

Things just got even more complicated.

~~PSALMS~~

I sighed as I walked around campus with Haruna and Lala, hearing all the whispering and seeing the students pointing at us.

"Lala, I thought we talked about that. We aren't engaged. You're just staying with me while your dad is out of the country."

For a spur of the moment idea, it actually wasn't too bad a cover story. And technically true, which made it even better. Of course, he's even further from the country than most would think, but it's still true. That, and he's never been to Japan, let alone Earth, as far as I know, but still.

"What? But Papa's nev-" I place a hand on her shoulder and give her a look she can hopefully interpret.

"Gid is out of the country for international business, right?"

She seemed to catch on, as her eyes lit up and she nodded. Crisis averted, those who heard would spread the word, and everyone would just think she has a crush on me and is trying to win me over while she stays with me…which is true, so it works out. Hopefully.

"So, Haruna-chan, where to next on Lala's tour?" I ask as I look over to the bluenette beauty, only to see that her mind seemed to be elsewhere as she stares ahead at nothing. "Er, Haruna-chan? You in there?"

I step up to her, waving a hand in her face, which seemed to snap her out of her daze. She shook her head quickly, before looking at us.

"Right! Sorry, Uzumaki-kun, Deviluke-san. How about the baseball and track fields?"

I shrug and Lala doesn't seem to care, so that's where we go next. Of course, had I remembered what day it was, I would've been vehemently against it.

"Oh ho! So, have you two beautiful ladies perhaps come to watch me play?" I sighed as I rubbed my forehead out of annoyance. Right. Baseball practice today. Motemitsu. Stupid perv.

"Wow! Look at Motemitsu-senpai! He just dives straight in!" And the perv's followers. Right.

"Huh? Nope! Naruto-kun and Haruna-chan are just showing me around campus. Oh! What game is that?" Lala seemed excited to have found another game she hadn't seen before, even if this one wasn't a video game.

"What? You're telling me you've never heard of baseball?! How terrible! Allow me to correct that!" Motemitsu went on some overly-complicated explanation of baseball (and how that's possible, I have no clue, but he did) while Lala listened intently before finally announcing in a loud voice that she wanted to try.

"Oh? Okay. But if I strike you out, you have to go on a date with me!"

I'm not quite sure why, but my fists clenched at that. This perv seriously thought that he could win Lala over? There's no chance I'd let her end up with this stupid perv. Not a chance in hell.

"Eh? No thanks, then. My heart already belongs to Naruto-kun!" Lala grinned over at me as she said that, before grabbing both me and Haruna and walking away.

"Woah! She shot Motemitsu-senpai down fast!"

I couldn't help but throw my head back and laugh as I heard Motemitsu start cursing my existence; it's nothing new, and it just serves to cheer me up whenever it happens.

I looked over and noticed Haruna staring at me; she blushed as her head snapped forward. What's up with her today? She's never acted like this before.

~~PSALMS~~

I smiled as I walked along next to Lala, who was skipping as she talked about how much she enjoyed her first day of school. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad after all. So long as none of those asshat suitors of hers showed up while we were at school, it should be fine.

"Yeah? Well, did you make any friends today, Lala-chan?"

My question stopped her as she looked over at me, a bubbly grin adorning her features.

"Yep! Haruna-chan was really nice, and so were Risa and Mio! Oh! And Rito and Saru too!" I nearly tripped as she said Risa and Mio were nice.

How in the world could she think them groping her was being nice?

Screw it. Don't care. Trying to wrap my head around Lala's way of thinking just gives me a headache.

"That's good. Yeah, they're all good people, even if they have their quirks."

Lala just nodded and continued skipping, slowly getting ahead of me on the way home.

Walking into the house, I felt the tense atmosphere right away, unlike Lala who cheerfully skipped into the living room.

"Oh! Hi, Zastin!" The lack of response made the hair on my arms stand up. I was already on edge, and walking into the living room, I knew that I should be. Zastin stood, a recording device in his hands.

"Naruto-dono. I have a message for you from Gid-sama. He explicitly ordered me to give it to you today."

I walked up, taking the offered alien device and fiddling with it, trying to figure out how to get it to play. Finally, Lala reached over and pressed a button on the bottom of it, leading to a hologram of a little kid to pop up.

"Er, you sure this is the right one, Zastin? This is just a kid." The way both Lala and Zastin's eyes widened told me I had just said something wrong.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" my head snapped down to the recording, watching as the kid stood up, an aura of power flaring around him. What the fuck is going on here? "My name is Gid Lucione Deviluke, and you have somehow tricked my daughter into picking you. It matters not, however, for I have already informed her suitors that whoever manages to take her will be chosen as my heir and shall marry her. Know this, if one succeeds in taking her… I shall destroy you and the entire Earth."

My hands shook with rage as I watched this kid babble on. This little midget is Lala's father? How in the fuck?

"Prove to me you are worthy, or I will eradicate everything you care about for wasting my time. I imagine all manner of her suitors will be arriving any time now to take her. If you allow that to happen, the Earth and your life are forfeit."

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I was expected to take this brat's bullshit? Really?

"Fuck you, you arrogant little toerag! Fuck you and your bullshit! I ain't marryin' Lala-chan, not when I don't have feelings for her, but I swore to keep her safe until she chose someone she wanted, and I damn well will. Because I never go back on my word!"

Lala's arms wrapped around me from behind and I felt tears dropping onto my back as they slowly made their way down her face. She shook her head against my back, before finally speaking up.

"It's just a recording, Naruto-kun. It isn't actually Papa. He can't hear you."

The brat smirked at me (or the device recording him, rather) before waving a hand and starting to walk away.

"Remember, if my daughter is taken, you and the Earth will perish. Good luck, Uzumaki Naruto. You'll need it."

The message ended after that. My whole body shook. This douche nozzle didn't even have the courtesy to talk over a phone? Not even to talk to his daughter? Instead, he just sends a message through his knight, to me and not his daughter? What the actual fuck?!

"I can't wait to meet that little douche, because when I do, I'm gonna kick ass for daring to treat you like nothing but something to be sold off."

The firm grip on my shoulder told me I said something wrong.

"Naruto-dono, that is Emperor Gid-sama you are speaking of. I cannot allow you to talk of him in that manner."

I met Zastin's glare head on, uncaring of the consequences.

"And he can't fucking treat his daughter like she doesn't even matter as more than giving the throne a future heir! I'll fucking set him straight, even if I have to beat his midget ass black and blue to do it!"

Lala's arms wrapped even tighter around me, sobbing into my back. I turned around in her arms, wrapping my own around her waist and letting her cry.

"I swear to you here and now that I will protect you. Not because of your asshat of a father's threat, but because you are important to me. He can send all the people he wants, I'll just kick their asses and make them either join my side as my underlings or leave and never come back."

Lala pulled back to look me in the eyes before doing something I did not expect whatsoever; she crushed her lips against mine. Not knowing how to react, I stood there as she kissed me, her lips slightly wet from crying, tears still running down her face.

A few seconds later, she pulled back, giving me a watery smile.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun…I know you asked me to not do stuff like that."

I stood stock still, not sure how to react. I have feelings for Haruna, I know that…so why did this kiss feel that way? Why does it feel like it means something to me?

"I…uh… It's alright, Lala-chan. Don't worry about it. I understand."

She smiled at me before wiping her face and nodding. She hugged me again, before saying she was going upstairs to take a bath.

I continued standing there, staring into space, at least until Zastin cleared his throat. My head snapped over to him as I shook out of the daze I was in.

"Yeah, Sir Psycho? What's up?" Zastin lightly glared at me over the nickname before sighing.

"Gid-sama means-"

"Shut up about him. I don't even wanna hear about Gid, Zastin. We clear?" the knight glared at me for interrupting him when he was speaking of his King, but I could care less. The less I have to even hear about that arrogant little bastard, the better.

Finally, the knight sighed and nodded at me.

"Good. I'm going up to my room. Do…whatever it is you and your underlings spend your time doing."

~~PSALMS~~

That night, I decided to go out for a walk, leaving Lala behind since she was sucked into some magical girl TV show.

I sighed as I walked, enjoying the fresh air after how rough today had been. First, Lala's cooking, and then her showing up at school…that message from the Midget Douche (and I've got the patent pending on that name). This is getting way too complicated way too fast for my tastes. But, Lala's important to me now…she's a friend. A good friend, even, despite the fact I haven't even known her for a week yet.

I pulled my MP3 out of my pocket and plugged my headphones in, letting piano fill my entire being as I sighed and walked towards the park, just letting my thoughts wander. When I got there, though, I saw someone I hadn't expected, but it brought a grin to my face. I waved as I pulled out my earbuds.

"Yo, Haruna-chan! Whatcha doin' out this late?" the pretty bluenette turned around as she heard my voice, and gave me her usual smile.

"Hello, Uzumaki-kun. I'm walking Maron since my sister couldn't tonight."

I nod at her as I step up next to her before crouching to pet the dog her and her sister got when they got their own apartment a few years ago.

"How is Akiho-san, by the way?" Haruna sighs as she shakes her head with a fond smile on her face.

"Neesan is the same as always. Either at work or on dates."

We spend a few more minutes talking before Haruna decides she has to go, and so I make a spur of the moment decision.

Haruna squeaks as I wrap my arms around her in a hug. It takes a second, but she hugs me back despite the huge blush on her face, and I grin at her as I pull away.

"Heh. Been a while since we last hugged, huh?"

"Y-Y-Yes. I-It has, U-U-Uzumaki-kun."

With that, she was off, leaving me behind chuckling. After a few seconds I stop as a sigh escapes my lips. I reach into my pocket and grab my earbuds, sticking them back in as I sit on a bench.

This is really getting a tad too complicated for my tastes.

Psycho alien suitors coming to take away the alien princess who literally teleported into my life and asked me to marry her, with her asshat father threatening to destroy the Earth if she is taken away. And that's only the alien side of the problem.

Then on the Earthling side of things, there's this love triangle with Rito, Haruna and me. Whatever the hell is going on there, I have no clue.

And there was that shit with Jiraiya and Kakashi I overheard Monday night… what happened with my parents? What isn't Jiraiya telling me?

"Dammit. Why can't things stay simple?" It took a minute but then I realized I had just jinxed myself with that. "Fuck. Well, I'm screwed. Goodbye, simple life, you shall be missed."

~~PSALMS~~

Monday April 21st, Earth Date 2014

"Ne, Naruto-kun, could we eat out again tonight?"

I look to my left, drawn out of my thoughts, to see Lala looking at me as she awaits my answer to her question; we were on our way to school now, where thankfully the rumors she had caused had all blown over now; the ones about us being engaged, anyways. There was still gossip about whether or not we were having sex, but I ignored that easy enough.

"If we've got time, sure. I need to stay after school today, though. I've got track practice, and then after that I need to head out to somewhere else; feel free to come with if you want."

The pinkette just grinned and nodded at me before starting to skip. I nearly chuckled; half the time, she might as well still be a little kid, and the other half (particularly when inventing or when she's trying to win me over) she seems to be older than the sixteen that she is.

"Oi, Naruto! Wait up, man!"

I looked over my shoulder to see a head of spiky black hair and grinned at the teen as he caught up to me.

"Yo, Saru. What's up?"

The teen gave me a lecherous grin, and I just knew whatever he had to say would involve having seen some hot girl or something.

"Have you heard yet? Rumor has it there's another transfer student coming to the school, and that she's hot as hell! I figured I'd see if you know her like you knew Lala-san."

I shake my head. Honestly, Saru? Is there ever a time where you aren't a little perv?

"I don't know anything about that, Saru, and I honestly don't care. If there is another transfer, then there's another transfer. I don't really care either way."

Saru glares at me as he gets ready to shout. I really don't feel like dealing with him right now.

"What?! How can you not care? Or is it because you and Lala-san really are doing it?! You lucky bastard, Naruto!"

"Eh? What are you and Saru talking about, Naruto-kun?"

For once, I'm thankful for Lala's innocence when it comes to this kinda stuff; it'd be pretty damn embarrassing if she knew what Saru meant.

"Saru says there are rumors of another transfer student. I was just telling him I don't really care if there is one or not."

Lala looks at me wide-eyed, like she can't believe what I just said. I groan, already knowing what is going to come outta her mouth.

"You don't care? But if there's another transfer student, that gives you the opportunity to make another friend, Naruto-kun!"

In the past two weeks, I had come to learn that when Lala said she didn't have much friends growing up, it was pretty damn true. She was so eager to make friends that she nearly talked to some Yakuza thugs before I managed to explain to her that not all people are friendly.

"I'm not gonna force somebody to be my friend, Lala-chan. If it works out that way, then it does. But I'm not gonna force my friendship on somebody. Underling status, sure, why not? But not friend status."

I grin as I say that since Saruyama looked at me weird about the underling thing, but Lala knew what I meant and returned my grin.

~~PSALMS~~

"Now then, class, I'm sure some of you have heard the rumors of another transfer student joining the school; that is correct. So, do your best to make them feel welcome just like you've been doing with Deviluke-san. Could you please come in now?"

The wildfire of whispers spread around the class pretty damn quickly, but I can't exactly blame them. Two transfer students in one month, especially when they aren't related, is rare. I watched the front of the room out of curiosity more than anything else, simply to see what kind of person would show up. Of course, what I got is definitely something I didn't expect.

This girl definitely did _not_ look old enough to be a second year student; hell, she looked like she was a first year, maybe a middle-school third year.

Her hair was an even brighter blonde than my own, with some of it pulled back into pigtails and the rest left to fall down to her waist, aside from the bangs that fell to her eyes and two longer sets that framed her face.

Her eyes captured the most attention, though: two orbs of dark red that looked like they held no emotion whatsoever. What the hell was up with this girl?

"Hello. My name is Eve Walker. Please treat me well." The girl spoke in a monotone voice before bowing and moving to the seat that the teacher pointed her to; the entire time, though, her empty eyes were trained on me.

I suddenly had the feeling things were gonna get a hell of a lot more complicated.


	3. A Journey of a Thousand Miles

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, yada yada._

Third Psalm: A Journey of a Thousand Miles…

Entry Three: July 19th, Earth Date 2130

Eve… all of the things I could possibly say about her… and I have no idea which to say.

So, I'll just say this; Eve is simply Eve. And if she wasn't who she is, I would never have become the man I grew to be. Hell, I probably would've died before my seventeenth birthday…

She was my first insight into the darkness of life…the darkness of existence; but she turned out to be my light in that darkness. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

~~PSALMS~~

Wednesday April 30th, Earth Date 2014

A groan escaped my throat as I landed on my ass for the fifth time in the past hour.

"Damn, Lee. The hell's gotten into you today?"

The fashion-challenged teen grinned at me as he offered a hand to help me back up off the floor of Maito's.

"Yosh, Naruto-kun! I am simply fanning my flames of youth to be even brighter!"

I chuckled as I held myself back from rolling my eyes; such a typical response for Lee.

"Right, right. Alright, Lee, let's go one last time. And this time, I'll land a hit on you for sure!"

"If you're sure, Naruto-kun, then I will gladly help you to fan your own flames of youth!"

And with that, my fellow teen charged right at me. Ducking under his first swing, I retaliated with a back fist, only to have Lee grab my arm. A smirk adorned my lips as I swung around, lifting myself into the air as I kicked at the bowl-cut styled teen, forcing him to let go of me lest he get kicked right in the gut. Landing on my feet, I backtracked as Lee came in swinging, barely keeping ahead of Lee's pace.

Shit. Running out of time… what to- fuck.

"Shit!"

As I saw Lee take another swing at me, I dropped to the ground, left with no other choice since I was up against the wall. I winced as I heard the tell-tale cracks of fractured bone as Lee's fist swung straight into the stone wall.

Scrambling to my feet, I rushed to help Lee only to feel my ass hit the ground again.

Another groan left my throat as I looked up at the grinning teen.

"Sometimes, you really make me think you're suicidal, y'know that, Lee?"

I pulled myself up to my feet again just in time to take a pat (read: powerful-ass swing) to my back from Gai as the man stepped up, grinning at me and Lee.

"Yosh! Very well done, Naruto-kun, Lee-kun! A great fight indeed! Now then, Lee-kun, let us take care of your hand! You may go now if you like, Naruto-kun!"

I nodded to the man and, with an apology to Lee, headed to the showers, my thoughts trailing over the past week and why I had chosen to push myself even harder.

~~PSALMS~~

Thursday April 24th, Earth Date 2014

"Ne, Naruto-kun! We should introduce ourselves to Eve-chan, right?" a bubbly voice interrupted my thoughts.

Looking over, I felt an unwarranted smile begin to form on my lips as I saw Lala grinning at me, her emerald eyes shining with joy and curiosity, as always.

"Ah, you go ahead, Lala-chan. I'm gonna head to the bathroom."

Do not lose to the pout, Naruto. It doesn't matter how cute it is, do not lose!

"…"

"…"

"Mou, fine, Naruto-kun! Go do whatever! I'm gonna go try and make Eve-chan feel welcome like everyone here did for me." And with that, Lala was off to talk to the blonde with empty red eyes.

As I stood up from my desk to head to the bathroom, I dragged a hand down my face.

"Something is definitely off here. But how the hell am I gonna figure it out…?" I mumbled to myself as I walked down the hall.

"Hey, Naruto, wait up!" Looking over my shoulder to see a shock of orange-brown hair, I grinned as Rito ran up to me.

"Yo, Rito, what's up?" I questioned as I looked at the teen who looked pretty damn nervous to be talking to his best friend.

"Er…could we talk? In private, I mean?" Tilting my head curiously at Rito's hesitance, I nodded as I motioned for him to follow me as I headed up to the school's roof.

After arriving, I leaned over the railing, taking in the fresh air and sunshine on this particularly nice spring day.

"So, what did you wanna talk about, Rito?"

He shuffled his feet as I looked over at him, causing me to raise an eyebrow. There wasn't a single girl in sight, and Haruna-chan was nowhere near us, so what's up with him?

"Er…well…doyouhavefeelingsforHaruna-chan!?"

I stared blankly at Rito, not having understood anything other than the first two words.

"Yeah, Rito…you're gonna have to talk slower if you want me to understand what the hell you're askin' me."

He seemed to call upon all of the courage he had as he took a deep breath before looking me in the eyes.

"Naruto…do you have feelings for Haruna-chan?"

I nearly allowed my eyes to widen at the question before stopping myself, fighting against all that is good and holy to keep any reaction that would answer his question in the positive from showing.

"The hell…what gives you that idea, Rito?!" I gawked at the teen. How the hell could he possibly know? Nobody did…besides the old perv and (possibly) Risa-chan, anyways, but neither of them would ever tell Rito!

Rito shuffled his feet again as he looked down at them before he raised his eyes to look back at me, seemingly finding his courage again.

"I… I overheard you the other week, Naruto. After you bumped into Haruna-chan in the hall. I heard everything the two of you said. I've just been too nervous to come talk to you about it, which is why I am only talking to you now."

I sighed before releasing a groan, moving to clench the railing. Fan- _fucking_ -tastic. Thank you, Kami-sama, you sadist! Although, this does explain Rito's avoidance of me the past few weeks.

Looking over at Rito, I knew my mind was already made up. It didn't matter what I had said after that run-in with Haruna-chan… Lala-chan's here now, and although I have no idea what's going on there, I'm not going to hurt her feelings. And I'm not going to hurt Rito, either. He's been my best friend for almost the entire time I've lived in this city after Jiraiya moved us here.

"It doesn't matter if I do, Rito. I gave up on that a long time ago." I let go of the railing and turned to look him in the eyes as I went on speaking, knowing we both needed this. "Do I have feelings for Haruna-chan? Yeah, I do. But I'm not going after her. Lala is here now, and while I may not know what the hell is going on with that, I'm not going to hurt her. And I'm not going to hurt my best friend. You've got a wide open path, Rito. Don't pass it up, because we aren't gonna be the only ones to notice Haruna-chan forever."

And with that, I walked away.

~~PSALMS~~

Friday April 25th, Earth Date 2014

"Ne, Naruto-kun, do you think Eve-chan would come over if I invited her?" Lala's bubbly voice broke the silence as we walked to school.

Looking over at the pinkette, the unsettling feeling that first reared its head when Eve walked into the classroom struck again.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea, Lala-chan." The girl pouted at me and went to open her mouth to speak up before I held up a hand, letting her know I wasn't done speaking yet. "Not yet, anyways. Get to know her first, Lala-chan. You don't really invite strangers over to your house on Earth. If you two get to be good friends, I'm all for it" _it fucking kills me to lie to her, dammit_ "but until then, just hang out with her at school, okay?"

The pinkette continued to pout, but thankfully nodded to me.

First crisis averted. Still, though, I need to figure out what the hell is up with Eve and why she's always watching me. There's no way she's one of Lala-chan's suitors; first off, Lala would've said something to me. Secondly, well… it's pretty damn obvious that Midget Douche (trademark pending) would want his heiress to the throne to eventually give birth to an heir. Not exactly possible in a lesbian relationship, now is it?

I ran a hand through my hair as I kept thinking about it. Just as we were walking onto school grounds, I felt a pair of eyes on me.

Looking around, I could've sworn I saw a flash of blonde hair on the roof…

What the hell is going on? Who in the hell is Eve?

Something is going on, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it.

~~PSALMS~~

"Ne, 'Ruto-kun, you all right?" The hand waved in front of my face snapped me out of my thoughts.

Looking up, I was met with the eyes of Risa-chan looking into mine.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Risa-chan, just thinking." My dirty-blonde friend searched my face for any sign of a lie before nodding at me and turning back to her conversation with Mio.

Of course, I technically hadn't lied to Risa anyways. I was thinking. She never bothered to ask what I was thinking about.

My eyes strayed over to my left, where a head of blonde sat next to Lala.

The same question had been on my mind since I first saw the girl staring at me.

What does Eve Walker want with me?

As I stared, the girl turned her face, her empty red eyes narrowing just the slightest bit as she looked me over.

Why is the look in those eyes so familiar to me? Why would I recognize that look?

Finally, the girl turned her head away, simply listening to Lala-chan and responding when required.

From the angle I was at, it looked like the slightest shine of emotion showed itself in the blonde girl's eyes for the shortest moment.

And then it all clicked. Empty eyes. Seemingly uncaring of anything. She was simply existing… just like I did twelve years ago.

Those eyes… the eyes of somebody with no reason to live. The eyes of one who's entire world crashed down all around them.

~~PSALMS~~

Wednesday April 30th, Earth Date 2014

After realizing that, I had told Lala-chan she could invite Eve over this Saturday, after classes. Ever since she told me that Eve had said yes, I'd had a foreboding feeling about Saturday. My need to keep somebody from living through what I had overpowered that foreboding feeling; for the most part, anyways. I'd decided to push myself even further with Gai-sensei so that I could be as prepared as possible in case that feeling proved to be right.

Eve wasn't the only thing on my mind, though. Usually when I was walking back home from either the gym or school, one other thing came to mind: my parents' deaths and what Jiraiya had talked about with that Kakashi dude.

I didn't want to bring those memories back up, though. I didn't want to think about the empty life I had lived for over a year. I didn't want to think about the parents I would never see again, not when it was thinking about them from just before the time they died.

But…that same foreboding feeling as the one Eve gave me just kept crawling out from the hole I threw it in anytime I thought about it.

A sigh escaped my lips as I arrived back home, walking up the lawn to the front door. I slipped my key out of my pocket and stuck it in the lock, twisting.

I had to know. As much as I wanted to let the past stay there, what I heard would haunt me until I figured out the truth.

With a deep inhale, I stepped into the house, kicking off my shoes. I walked straight into the living room and turned off the television, not caring what Jiraiya was watching.

"Oi! What're you doing, brat?"

I turned to look my godfather in the eyes, steeling myself for the conversation.

"How did my mom and dad die, _Godfather_?" I had put extra emphasis on the title, hoping it would convince the man to tell me the truth.

"The hell're you talking about, kid? You know how they died. You nearly died in that fire, Naruto."

I looked the man in his eyes. Searching for any sign that he was lying, and while there wasn't a single one, the moment the thought of accepting that as the truth popped into my head, that foreboding feeling reared its head again, even stronger than before.

"…that's a lie, though, isn't it, Jiraiya?"

I looked the man in the eyes, knowing now that it was a lie. I'm not sure how, but I knew.

"What makes you think that, brat?"

I looked at the old perv, wondering if I should fess up or try and bullshit my way through an explanation.

Finally, I sighed, knowing that what had happened was the only believable way I could know.

"A couple weeks back, some white haired guy was at the house with you. I think you called him Kakashi or something like that… I overheard you two, perv."

The man seemed to age years in seconds as his body deflated and he heavily sat in his chair.

"Yeah. It's true. The fire was a cover-up, kid."

I stared at the man, trying to make my eyes as empty of emotion as possible.

"Then how the hell did it happen?"

"Kid…don't ask me that."

I was shocked at how defeated the normally full-of-life man sounded. But I had to know.

"How, Jiraiya?"

The man looked up at me as I stood in front of him, his eyes full of tears.

"I _can't_ tell you, kid. In their will, Minato made me promise that if what he feared happened, I wouldn't tell you."

"You're telling me he knew… he knew and he didn't even fucking try to stop it?!"

That seemed to finally hit the old perv as he stood up, a glare in his eyes as looked down at me.

"He tried everything he could, Naruto. And if you ever say that your father didn't try…"

I turned around and walked out, not bothering to listen anymore.

I locked myself in the bathroom, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The reflection that looked more and more like my father the older I got.

My blood felt like it was on fire in my veins, like liquid heat was burning through my body.

"DAAAAAAAMMIT!"

My fist impacted the mirror, leaving glass to fly all over the bathroom, opening cuts in my hand and along my arm, while one just barely burrowed itself into my cheek, only an inch below my left eye.

I pulled my hand back, looking at the glass embedded in my skin as crimson rivulets slid around it to drip down onto the floor.

"Oi, brat, open the damn door!"

I ignored Jiraiya's calls at the door as I dropped to the ground, leaning back against the wall.

"…any other lies you wanna confess to me, Jiraiya?"

The banging died down as I spoke up. I heard a heavy sigh on the other side of the door.

"I have never lied to you about anything but that. And only then because it was your father's dying wish, Naruto! Now, open the door. Please, kid."

I groaned as I stood up, moving to open the door as I cradled my injured right hand to my chest.

Jiraiya had tears in his eyes as he looked at me.

"I…I'll go and call Tsunade-hime, kid. She'll patch you up."

After saying that, Jiraiya turned and rushed down the stairs for his cell phone.

I sighed as I stared at my crimson-coated fist.

"Good thing Lala-chan is hanging out with Risa-chan and Mio."

~~PSALMS~~

"You're lucky none of this dug any further in, you stupid brat!" Baa-chan stared at me as she worked on my hand, carefully taking out the glass and dropping it in a small biohazard box. "What the hell were you thinking?"

I finally lifted my eyes to meet her brown ones, a glare burning strong in my eyes.

"Did you know too? That my parents' dying in a fire and me nearly doing the same is a fucking lie?"

The woman's eyes widened in surprise before she sighed deeply and looked at me.

"Yeah… I knew. Minato told me his suspicions only a week or two before he and your mother died. I'm sure Jiraiya told you that in their will, your father asked us to keep quiet. The fact that it was marked as an accident legally helped even more."

Hearing that, I was out of the chair and on my way to my room, not even caring that Tsunade hadn't finished patching my hand up yet.

My blood boiled. Legally an accident…the two who know not even willing to tell me how it happened. There was only one option left: Kakashi.

~~PSALMS~~

Thursday May 1st, Earth Date 2014

After classes ended, I had told Lala-chan I was heading to the gym and that she should hang out with Risa-chan and Mio since they had invited her again.

Once out of her sight, though, I turned in the direction to head home. Jiraiya had a meeting about his next book today at the publisher's main location and wouldn't be home until early tomorrow. That left ample time to find out a way to get in contact with Kakashi.

I slipped my shoes off as I entered the house and set my bag down, moving straight to Jiraiya's "study". I had hoped Jiraiya was one of those people that believed that nobody ever checks the most obvious spot. Flipping open the laptop that sat on top of the desk, I sat down in the comfy chair that sat in front of it.

Looking at the screen, I saw it asking for a password to login.

I closed my eyes in thought…what might Jiraiya use for a password. Thinking over the man's recent obsession with 'shipping', a thought came to mind about what he might use. I hated myself for even typing the stupid thing out, but I had to check.

Especially since I had heard him mumble it under his breath before as he giggled over what he was reading.

'JirXTsuFTW'

The laptop dinged as the word 'Welcome' popped up on screen. I groaned as I dropped my head onto the desk.

"You creepy old perv. That is the single most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed."

As the screen loaded, I released a sigh of relief as I saw that his email was still open. The newest one gave me what I wanted right away. Sent by Kakashi. Asking the old perv when he wants to meet up to talk about some new info he had uncovered. Jiraiya hadn't read this yet, and wouldn't be back until early tomorrow morning.

This was my one chance to talk to Kakashi before Jiraiya found out.

' _Naruto is out for the rest of the day and all of tonight._

 _Come as soon as you read this._

 _-Jiraiya'_

That was the reply I wrote as I closed the laptop and stood up.

My hands shook as I paced in the living room, waiting to see if Kakashi would show.

This was my one chance. I couldn't lose it. I needed to know the truth... to know if there were any other lies about my life. No matter the consequences. Otherwise, the questions would keep burning in my head until the day I died.

Finally, after I waited for what felt like hours but was actually only about half an hour, there was a knock on the door. I practically sprinted to the door before wrenching it open and coming face to face with the silver-haired man I had seen Jiraiya talking to the other week.

"Wha-Naruto?!" The man shouted as soon as he realized it was me. I looked at him, probably looking like I was certifiably insane.

"So, you're Kakashi, then."

The man's eye that wasn't blocked by an eyepatch widened as he stared at me, wondering how I knew who he was.

"What is going on, Naruto?"

I stared at the man, wondering how to phrase my response.

"Tch. Pretty sure _I_ should be the one asking _you_ that, Kakashi. Not the other way around."

The man sighed as he looked at me, before gesturing as if he wanted to come in. I stepped to the side, allowing the man entrance before following him into the living room, where he sat down heavily on my couch; seeing as my seat was taken, I took Jiraiya's 'throne'.

"How did you find out?" were the first words out of the silver-haired man's mouth. Lifting my eyes to meet his sole dark one, I thought for only a second before speaking up.

"On my way home from the gym almost two weeks ago. I saw you and Jiraiya talking and I ducked behind a bush. I already brought it up with Jiraiya, and he refused to tell me how my parents died. Same with Tsunade. You are my last option, Kakashi."

The man seemed to age years in seconds before me, just like Jiraiya when I had asked my guardian about the same thing.

"I…I can't, Naruto. I'm sure Jiraiya and Tsunade already told you about Minato-sensei's request in his will."

I growled as my blood felt like it was on fire again.

"So, what? I don't deserve to fucking know the truth about how my parents died?! About how _I_ almost fucking died, Kakashi?!"

The man stared at me, drinking in my features. Finally, he pointed to the fresh scar that rested only an inch below my left eye.

"How did that happen?"

I scoffed at his obvious attempt to change the subject before shaking my head at him.

"None of your business, Scarecrow."

The man's fists clenched for a split second before he sighed and rubbed at his face.

"I suppose the only way you'll tell me about that scar is if I tell you about your parents?"

I silently nodded at the man. He then sighed and leaned back in the chair after pulling one of Jiraiya's _Icha Icha_ books out of his pocket, obviously prepared to play the waiting game with me. We both listened as the clock ticked and tocked, time slowly passing by. Finally, I spoke up.

"If you aren't going to talk, you might as well just leave, Scarecrow."

The man lifted his eye from the book to stare at me before looking back down. About a minute later, he spoke up.

"I would rather wait for Jiraiya to get home, Naruto."

I shook my head at him before I spoke up myself.

"You think I would've done this if I didn't have enough time? Jiraiya isn't going to be back until tomorrow morning. He's out of town for a meeting with his publisher." I told the man before scoffing. "Y'know, that dumb ass book series you're reading one of right now?"

The man merely raised his eye to meet mine for a few seconds before looking back down. Again, he spoke up after about a minute of silence.

"Then I suppose I'll be staying the night. Someone has to make sure you don't get in trouble."

That was what finally set me off. I shot up out of the chair, my blood boiling in my veins, the feeling of liquid fire present again.

"You act like I can't damn well take care of myself! You, Jiraiya, Tsunade! You all treat me like some infant that needs to be protected!" I shouted, causing the man's eye to widen as his face shot up to look at me. "Newsflash, Scarecrow! I'm not the kid that nearly died when his parents did anymore!"

With that, I was out the door, uncaring to grab anything I might need. I ignored Kakashi's calls from behind me, sprinting down the street, uncaring of where I was going. I needed out. I needed to vent, to rage… I needed a way to get rid of the liquid fire in my veins.

I wasn't quite sure how I ended up at the train station, and I was lucky I still had my wallet on me. Being here, though, I knew where my instincts were leading me. I bought a single ticket for Kyoto…for where my parents died. In all these years, I hadn't been to the sight once. And now…I needed to be there, for whatever reason. My instincts hadn't let me wrong yet, and I wasn't about to start distrusting them now.

~~PSALMS~~

I sat in my seat in the first-class section of the train, impatient for the arrival in Kyoto. My blood still boiled, the liquid fire burning its way through my veins as I tapped my foot on the ground and my fingers on the arm rest. 

I had no idea what awaited me in Kyoto. No idea if the ruins of my childhood home with my parents were still there, or if the place had been rebuilt and another family moved in. But… I knew this is where I would find at least some of the answers.

Finally, the train began to slow, and announcement that the train was stopping its first Kyoto stop blared over the speakers.

I stood up, sticking my hands in my pockets as I walked off of the train and into the crowded station, trying to find my way to a map. The only thing I barely remembered about that house was the address. If I could find that on a map, I would manage to find my way there.

I looked over my shoulder as I felt a pair of eyes watching me, but I saw nothing so I turned and kept on going, seeking out a map. As I found one, I scoured it for any hint of my address before releasing a groan as I saw that it wasn't anywhere near where I had gotten off the train. I pulled out my phone, typing directions into the notepad app on it before I left, heading up the stairs and into the city.

I _would_ get the answers I needed. One way or another. I had to know if this was the only lie in my life…

~~PSALMS~~

I got a lot of looks as I walked the streets of Kyoto, people easily recognizing that the uniform I was wearing didn't match any of the schools in the area, and seeing that I was the only one wearing it, I obviously wasn't on a field trip.

I didn't care, though. I was only about ten more minutes away if my guess was right, and nothing was gonna stop me. I wouldn't let a single damn thing get in the way of me finding answers.

My mind raced as I walked, growing ever closer to my former home.

 _What if it was alien attack?_

 _What if Kaa-chan or Tou-chan somehow got wrapped up in shit with a gang?_

I couldn't stop the flood of questions as they raced through my head. There was only one that never came to mind, because it wasn't even possible. I knew I wasn't adopted. Looked too much like my old man for that to even be possible.

I also knew my father hadn't been in an affair; as much as I looked like him, I had gotten my eye shape from my mother, and my face was a mix between both of my parents'. That, and even when I was a kid, it was obvious how much my parents loved each other.

I sighed as I turned the street and pinpointed where my home had been, seeing a plot cleared of anything and everything.

The debris was gone, but the house had never been rebuilt. The grass was a bit longer in the area than those around it, but it was obvious that someone was still cutting it every once in a while.

I shakily stepped up, looking at the place where my parents and I had lived once upon a time. My eyes scoured the ground for something, anything at all, that I would recognize, and yet I saw nothing.

Tears built up in my eyes as fire raged in my veins. I clenched my hands into fists as my phone slipped out of my hand, dropping to the ground and cracking on the cement.

Fire flashed before my eyes and a scream echoed in my mind as I stared at the grassy ground, devoid of any signs a fire had ever happened here. I stepped forward, walking up the pathway as memories flashed before my eyes.

My father playing catch with me. Helping Kaa-chan cook, despite how bad I had been at it back then. The old perv and Baa-chan coming to visit… before, finally, a flash of silver hair passed my memories.

My eyes widened. Had I met Kakashi before whatever robbed me of my parents and my innocence happened?

I knelt at the end of the pathway, obviously where the front entrance to the house had been.

Hearing a clearing of a throat behind me, I stood up and whirled around, taking in a man with bluish-black hair pulled back behind his head. Pearl eyes stared back at me.

"Hmm…you must be Naruto."

My eyes widened a bit at hearing my name, and I stumbled back a bit, about to trip, before the man grasped my arm and helped me right myself.

"You've no need to fear, Naruto. I worked with your father before the fire. I have one of my subordinates take care of the grounds in respect of him."

I gawked at the man, still trying to find my voice, before I finally spoke up.

"Who are you?"

The man gave a small chuckle before shaking his head.

"I should have expected you wouldn't recognize me. After all, the last time I saw you, you were only two years old." The man sighed as he looked at me. "My name is Hyūga Hiashi."

I closed my eyes, scouring my memory for the man or any mention of his name. Finally, I shook my head, giving up any chance of remembering this man from my past.

"Imagine my surprise, Naruto, when I get a call from a subordinate telling me a man who looks just like Minato had shown up at his former home."

I looked at the man, drinking in the features of someone who had worked alongside my father, before finally speaking up.

"Tell me about him. Please."

The regal-looking man gave me a soft smile as he nodded and stepped up beside me.

"Minato… he was one of the most caring men I've ever met, Naruto. He believed that nothing was more important than family and friends. He even had this little saying, you know. ' _People who abandon the job are trash. But those who abandon their comrades…they're lower than trash'._ " Hiashi said as he looked at where the house used to be alongside me.

"That man… his greatest dream was to bring peace, you know? He tired of the hatred in this world we live in. A world where a man is willing to shoot another for the money in his wallet. A world where someone is willing to destroy a family because of greed alone."

I looked over to the man, drinking in every word he spoke; the words themselves resonated in me, and a memory flashed before my eyes.

~~PSALMS~~

 _Fire raged in the house as a blonde-haired man carried a small child – no older than four – who was obviously the man's son, trying to escape. A red-haired woman in a green dress with an attached apron ran in front of the blond duo, working to clear a path so that the small family could escape. A reddish energy built up around the woman as she struggled to lift a support beam that had fallen in front of them. Finally, she managed to lift it enough for the man to squeeze under, the small boy in his arms._

" _Go, Minato! I can't hold this for long!"_

 _The man turned, watching as the support beam fell to the ground after he and his son had made it past._

" _Kushina!"_

 _The redhead lifted her eyes to meet the blonde's, tears in her eyes as blood dripped down her face._

" _Take care of him, Minato. Take care of our son."_

 _The man shook his head, tears in his own eyes as he looked at his wife over the flaming support beam._

" _Dammit, Kushina! I'm not leaving you here!"_

 _The woman shook her head at the blonde, tears mingling with the blood that ran down her face. Finally, the sound of metal meeting flesh was heard as the woman's eyes widened and a steel blade pierced through her chest._

" _Hm. So sad, you know? So_ much _potential… and all of it wasted on disgusting fleshbags like you." A baritone voice rung out behind the woman as a figure garbed in a brown robe pulled the blade from her chest, leaving the body to collapse to the floor as the final bit of life in the woman left her._

 _The blonde's eyes widened as he grabbed his son, tears still streaming down his face as he struggled to escape the burning house and the cloaked figure._

" _All you had to do was give me the child, human! The two of you could've lived had you just done that!"_

 _The blonde refused to look back as he moved, dodging the flaming debris that fell all around him, struggling to escape both the fire and the man that had killed his wife._

" _And let you wage a war like the Galactic War!? Not a chance!"_

 _The baritone voice let out a chuckle as the figure continued to stalk the blonde man carrying his child._

" _Come, now, Minato! We both know this hatred-driven galaxy deserves it! I'll erase this hatred, this corruption! And I'll start everything anew!"_

 _Just as the blonde escaped the house, the baritone-voiced figure finally caught up._

 _The small child fell to the ground as the sound of metal meeting flesh was heard again. The boy looked up, tears in his eyes as he watched the sword pierce through his father's chest._

" _TOU-CHAAAAAAAN!"_

 _Orange energy flared around the boy as he blacked out._

~~PSALMS~~

I fell to the ground on my hands and knees as the memory played in mind. I gasped for breath, staring at my hands as the memory of screaming for my father as he died flared before my eyes.

The regal-looking Hyūga man knelt beside me as he rested a hand on my back.

"Naruto! Are you all right?"

I looked up, tears trailing down my face as I stared into the man's pearl eyes.

"Call Jiraiya. Or Kakashi. Just…call somebody."

Finally, my body and mind gave out as I collapsed to the ground, giving in to blissful unconsciousness.


End file.
